A Little Movement

As indicated below, we have to expect an all out assault on this from the Dirty Fuels Cartel, as well as the Private-Profit-At-Public-Expense gang.

Make this one stick, and the next five get really hard. But make those stick, it should get a little easier.

Maine Will Vote In November On Creating Non-Profit Power Utility

The move was spurred by citizen concerns about climate change.

Maine residents are about to be bombarded with a public relations campaign aimed at saving the state’s two dominant electric utilities from being voted out of existence this November.

Via The Guardian:

If Mainers vote yes, they will make history – endorsing a first-of-its-kind plan to create a state-level, public power company through a hostile takeover.

But the parent companies of the existing utilities are spending millions to try and stop that.

It’s a vote which experts say could reverberate around the country as legacy, investor-owned utilities are being challenged to decarbonize while state officials adopt more aggressive climate agendas amid customer frustration at high rates and outages.

“This is one ship they don’t want to see launched,” said Kenneth Colburn, a former consultant with the global energy policy firm Regulatory Assistance Project, speaking about investor-backed utilities across the US. “Because it could turn into an armada.”

If the issue passes, things won't change anytime soon:

But how voters cast their ballots may come down to an article of faith. That’s because voters won’t have a definite date for the creation of the new entity, nor certainty on how it would affect their electric bills. If the ballot initiative to create Pine Tree Power wins, that’s just the beginning. Next, the value of each utility’s assets must be calculated and paid to the companies. The companies are currently worth some $5.4bn, according to their latest company reports. But CMP says the ultimate sales figure could jump to $13.5bn.

And no one can be sure how many years it could take for the inevitable legal challenges to play out. Our Power estimates three-to-four years. Maine Affordable Energy says 10 years is more likely.

As part of their influence campaign, the utilities are paying three former Maine legislators to persuade Mainers to vote “no” on the Pine Tree Power plan, public records and interviews show.

It Burns

We have no right to be shocked and surprised by any of this. Not when the smart guys have been telling us for decades that this is the kinda shit we can expect.

Yes, we should be moved by the emotional appeal of seeing people's lives disrupted (ie: upended, fucked up completely, snuffed out, whatever - pick one, they're all bad) but we also have to see this as an opportunity to stomp some conservative ass and make the point that Republicans (mostly) are getting people killed because of their foot-dragging at best, and their outright counter-humanity policies at worst.

This is really really bad, you guys.

Satellite pix of Canada on fire.

‘How Could This Happen?’

Canadian Fires Burning Where They Rarely Have Before

Of the more than 400 fires burning in Canada, more than one-third are in Quebec, which has little experience with so many and such large wildfires.

When Liz Gouari was making plans to move from Africa to join her husband in a rural stretch of northern Quebec, he promised her that Canada was a tranquil nation.

But on Wednesday, the couple was among dozens of people sitting in stunned disbelief in an evacuation center after the entire city where they lived was forced to flee from a raging wildfire.

The blaze tore through the forest and bore down on their city, Chibougamau, one of the countless Canadian communities affected by an extraordinary outbreak of forest fires whose smoke has blotted out skies across swaths of North America and forced millions indoors because of hazardous air quality.

Growing up in the Republic of Congo, Ms. Gouari and her husband, Rey Steve Mabiala, said they were familiar with evacuations of all sorts — he had once fled fighting by hiding in a tropical forest — and with how floods and droughts made worse by climate change were causing major displacements on the continent.

“Back home in Africa, there are many climate refugees, but I never thought I would become one in Canada," said Mr. Mabiala, 42, who arrived in Canada in 2018, and was joined last month by Ms. Gouari, 39, after he became a permanent resident and sponsored her admission into the country.

With three months left in Canada’s wildfire season, blazes have already scorched more than 10 times the acres of land burned by this time last year. The size and intensity of the fires are believed to be linked to drought and heat brought on by a changing climate.

Fires are burning in forests in all of Canada’s provinces and territories, except the province of Prince Edward Island and Nunavut, a northern territory that sits above the tree line, where temperatures are too low for trees to survive.

“My wife keeps telling me, ‘But how could this happen? You always promised me that Canada was a peaceful country, but now we’re starting to flee as if we’re back home,’” Mr. Mabiala said, glancing at his wife, who had a blank stare and could only murmur that she was “shocked.”

The outbreak has hit not only the western provinces traditionally prone to wildfires, but also provinces in the east, like Quebec, where it is rare for so many fires to burn simultaneously and whose residents have little experience evacuating from such blazes.

Of the more than 400 fires now burning in Canada, more than one-third are in Quebec, which has already registered its worst wildfire season on record.

Climate Forward There’s an ongoing crisis — and tons of news. Our newsletter keeps you up to date. Get it in your inbox.
“It’s really an exceptional year,” said Josée Poitras, a spokeswoman for Quebec’s wildfire prevention agency.

As even extremely cold regions in Canada become warmer, increasing temperatures and a “vapor-pressure deficit,’’ or a lack of moisture in the air, are making trees drier, said Tanzina Mohsin, a professor of physical and environmental sciences at the University of Toronto.

“We are facing some unprecedented events, including droughts, accelerated fires and heat waves, and there will be more over time, especially forest fires,” Ms. Mohsin said.

The wildfires in Quebec were sparked last week by a single lightning strike near Val-d’Or, a city about 200 miles southwest of Chibougamau, following an unusually dry spring, Ms. Poitras said, adding, “In one day, we got 200 alerts from people reporting that they had seen smoke, and that resulted in more than a hundred fires, which have gradually increased.”

In Chibougamau — a city of 7,500 people about 430 miles north of Montreal by road — city officials issued an evacuation order late Tuesday, only hours after having said that a firewall would contain the encroaching blaze. But with the fires only 15 miles away and picking up speed, residents jumped into vehicles and began heading south.

Many arrived in Roberval, a city about 150 miles southeast of Chibougamau. A drive that usually takes a couple of hours took two to three times longer as a caravan of cars and trailers moved slowly down the highway in the middle of the night.

“I’ve lived in Chibougamau for more than 40 years, and I’ve never experienced a situation like this,” said Francis Côté, 71, who was staying with other evacuees at a sports center in Roberval. “It’s the first time I’ve had to evacuate because of a wildfire.”

It was the first time that all of Chibougamau had to evacuate because of wildfires, though residents in parts of the city had been forced to leave in 2005.

Inside the large sports center where evacuees were sheltering, people sat and slept on cots, with single suitcases next to them. Some had brought along their pets.

The authorities had blocked all roads leading up to Chibougamau and other areas threatened by the wildfires, and it was unclear when residents would be allowed to return or what they would find once they did.

In an odd twist, while smoke from the wildfires was wafting across the East Coast of the United States, there was no smell or visible smoke in Roberval and other areas just south of Chibougamau on Thursday.

A combination of factors, fire officials said, laid the groundwork for the spread of wildfires in the Chibougamau area: freezing rain that weighed down trees and littered the forest floor with broken branches that became tinder; and unusually dry ground because snow melted earlier than usual and there was little rain in the spring.

Built on mining and the logging industry, Chibougamau is one of the few bold names on maps of Quebec’s vast, thinly populated northern regions. For many in Quebec, it is a mysterious place associated with remoteness and extreme cold.

But Chibougamau is also being hit by the effects of global warming. Longtime residents said that the evacuation followed years of change in their community.

Since retiring as a mining worker a decade ago, Mr. Côté has managed an outdoor skating rink in Chibougamau. Fewer months with below freezing temperatures have shortened the skating season, and erratic temperatures have made it more difficult to maintain a clean, smooth ice surface.

“This year, there was a thaw in January,” he said. “It melted, I had to start over, and it took a week to remake the ice.”

“We can really see that it’s global warming that’s impacting us more and more," Mr. Côté added. “Every year, it gets worse.”

When Guy Boisvert, 79, moved to Chibougamau as a child, a white fog blanketed much of the city in winter, as temperatures regularly dropped to minus 45 Fahrenheit. Winters were long, and May brought a lot of showers, making wildfires rare and manageable.

“Sometime we’d see a small wildfire, and it would last a day or two," Mr. Boisvert said.

His wife, Shirley Gallon, 75, who has lived in Chibougamau for 53 years, added, “We never imagined we’d have to evacuate from Chibougamau.”

More recently, because of warming temperatures, the golf season has lengthened in Chibougamau, said Jonathan Mattson, 42, a city councilor and fervent golfer.

A couple years ago, the golf season began starting a full month earlier, in mid-April. Normally, the golf course feels wet.

“But this year, when I walked on the course, it was crispy — very, very dry,’’ Mr. Mattson said.

But perhaps most surprised were newcomers to Chibougamau, like Mr. Mabiala, from the Republic of Congo, who came to work in logging.

Two women from the Philippines, Ruth Cabrera and Anna Huerte, said they had experienced evacuations back home after floods and volcano eruptions.

A familiar dread — of being at the mercy of natural forces beyond their control — returned as the wildfires approached Chibougamau, turning the sky red and yellow.

Ms. Cabrera, 49, who works at a McDonald’s in Chibougamau, and Ms. Huerte, 38, who works in logging, said they did not realize how climate change could upend lives in Canada.

The two women said that their relatives in the Philippines had been astonished to learn about their evacuation.

“They were asking, ‘Oh, is there such a thing in Canada?’ ’’ Ms. Cabrera said.

How to Protect Your Health From Wildfire Smoke

Do masks work?

The best thing to do to prevent breathing in pollutants is to stay indoors. If you have to go outside, put on a mask. But a surgical mask, scarf or bandanna won’t do much to protect you from pollutants. Instead, use a N95 face mask or respirator mask. Cover both your nose and mouth.

How can I keep indoor air clean?

By some estimates, a good air filtration system can cut smoke pollution indoors by about 50 to 80%. If you have central air or an air-conditioning unit, close your windows and switch your system’s filtration settings to recirculate. Portable air purifiers with HEPA filters can work well in smaller spaces. Portable fans and ceiling fans can also help.

Who is most at risk?

All children and adults with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions are among the most vulnerable to toxins in smoke. Older adults and pregnant women are also at higher risk of serious health effects. These people should seek medical assistance if experiencing discomfort or heightened symptoms.

What should I do if I have a headache?

Breathing in wildfire smoke can cause headaches. To ward that off, restrict the amount of time you spend outdoors, and try to optimize the quality of your indoor air. The most effective treatment for headaches can vary from person to person, but over-the-counter medications like Tylenol or Advil can help. Staying hydrated is also critical.

Can I go for a run?

You probably shouldn’t, especially if you suffer from chronic respiratory conditions like asthma. During exercise, we largely breathe through our mouths, which — unlike noses — don’t have a natural filtration system for pollutants. Exercising in a highly polluted environment has been linked to cardiovascular health risks. Smoky conditions can also hinder visibility.

How can I monitor the quality of the air?

Several apps, including AirNow Mobile App, can help you track air quality levels. Home air quality monitors are limited in their abilities and reliability; keep that in mind if you choose to use one.

As The World Burns

Across North America, wildfires are burning more land at a higher intensity, a phenomenon that wildfire experts attribute to climate change. Studies show a clear correlation between the number of acres burned by wildfires and higher temperatures. Heat waves in May in Alberta dried out vegetation, creating conditions that make large wildfires more likely.

NYC

Wash DC

Meanwhile, the "Freedom Caucus" decided their priority is to enact a law that protects gas stoves, and to fuck over Kevin McCarthy because they're pouting about the Debt Ceiling deal he made.

Another Fun One

Arctic may have summers with no sea ice sooner than projected, study finds

A much-feared moment — a summer in which the Arctic Ocean features almost entirely open water — could be coming even sooner than expected and has the possibility to become a regular event within most of our lifetimes, according to a new study.

Experts have long feared at least an occasional dwindling of floating Arctic ice down to minimal levels by 2050, with a greater risk as humans emit more greenhouse gases. The new research, though, suggests that even in a fairly low-emissions scenario that holds the planet’s warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, regular years without summer Arctic sea ice could occur in the 2050s.

The trend gets worse as the emissions levels increase. In the worst-case scenario, the study said, there is a possibility that the Arctic could have Septembers with no ice as soon as the 2030s, a decade earlier than previous research indicated.

“We do seem to be destined to see ice-free summers in the Arctic. That seems to be baked in at this point,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., who was not associated with the study. “The question has always been when.”

Arctic sea ice follows an annual cycle, peaking in the unbroken darkness of winter and then dwindling in the equally constant glare of summer. Even if ice does dip below 1 million square kilometers in area at the summer low in September — a threshold deemed to represent a basically ice-free ocean — that does not mean it won’t rebound quickly in the winter or persist through summer the next year. Much depends on weather. But the warming of the Earth makes it easier for the ice to melt and harder for it to rebound.

The impacts will be far-reaching, threatening communities, harming ecosystems and exacerbating global warming, scientists said.

“The impacts are already upon us, and they are growing. You could still have a fair bit of sea ice out there in summer and have very important or tremendous impacts on fish species, phytoplankton blooms on the people of the north,” Serreze said.

Without sea ice, the Arctic will also warm faster. Arctic ice sends solar radiation back to space, because bright ice reflects more than the dark ocean. If the ice melts, additional solar energy will be added to the region, increasing planetary warming.

“Disappearing sea ice will add an enormous amount of additional solar energy to the Arctic,” said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climate scientist at the University of California at San Diego.

The authors of the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, compared years of satellite observations of Arctic ice to 10 existing climate models. The satellite imagery showed a starker loss in Arctic ice than climate models projected, informing the authors’ predictions of an even faster decline, said Nathan Gillett, a climate scientist and one of the study’s authors.

The authors then ran the updated models under four potential scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions. Under the best-case scenario, the Arctic would be ice-free most Septembers by 2050. Under the worst-case scenario, the Arctic would experience Septembers without ice by the 2030s. This could grow to be several months without ice later in the century.

Gillett said reducing emissions will reduce how quickly ice is lost.

“Reducing emissions will limit warming,” he said. “It does make a difference as to how much ice we have.”

What You Hear

... is the sound of Mother Earth taking a small measure of vengeance.

Enjoy while you can, and if you can ignore what it's going to mean for your grandkids.

Iceberg crashing in Diskobay, Greenland

A Sign

Migration is the norm. Thinking there's something we can do to stop it is one of humankind's great modern delusions.

We can mitigate, and we can compensate, and we can do some things to make it less necessary - but it won't be stopped. The herds will migrate following food and better opportunities for the survival of their species. Humans included. Get ready.

The ‘Devil Bird’ Lands in New York, With More Likely to Come

Anhingas, water birds with snakelike necks, have turned up in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and far upstate, a sign of shifting ranges for birds from the South.

For two weeks, a strange bird has perched in Brooklyn over the treetops of one of the Three Sisters Islands in Prospect Park Lake. It shows no signs of heading back to the place it most likely came from in the South.

Meet the anhinga, a large water bird with a snaky neck that has joined other high-profile vagrant birds in recent years by making a rare appearance outside of its typical migration range.

The bird’s name comes from the Tupi Indian language of Brazil and means “devil bird.” And according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it’s not from around here: Anhingas in the United States generally range from the Southern states along the gulf coast to Texas, stretching into the Carolinas in the summer.

The Prospect Park anhinga is the first devil bird observed in Kings County, and only the second sighting in New York City since 1992. When Radka Osickova first spotted it with the Brooklyn Bird Club, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“What kind of a weird heron is that over there?” she recalls asking.

Researchers say that this rogue anhinga didn’t merely veer off course, but that it was taking advantage of a habitat that was newly available to it because of rising temperatures.

Longtime bird-watchers have noted other unusual feathered visitors in Prospect Park in recent months.

“Some of the species include summer tanager, yellow-throated warbler, Acadian flycatcher (now nesting in the park) and others,” said Tom Stephenson, a Brooklyn birder, in an email. “We’ve also seen a number of unusual Western species in Brooklyn, including Townsend’s warbler and Swainson’s hawk.”

Kenn Kaufman, a bird expert and field guide author, says we’re seeing a broad pattern emerging with Southern birds in search of new nesting territories.

“In evolutionary terms, these far-flung wanderers might be viewed as testing the limits,” Mr. Kaufman said.

The anhinga in Brooklyn may be on its own, but there were earlier indications that the species had been making forays much farther north. Days before the sighting in Brooklyn, Timothy Wing spotted another anhinga outside his car window in Rome, N.Y., about 180 miles north of New York City.

“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what I assumed was a double-crested cormorant sitting on a log in the canal on my left,” said Mr. Wing, a bird enthusiast. “The color for the head and neck was much lighter than a typical cormorant, and it didn’t seem right.”

He pulled over and took a closer look with a spare set of binoculars he keeps in his car.

“To my amazement, I saw multiple anhingas sitting on a log, and many others up in the trees along the opposite bank of the canal,” he said.

After taking photos with his cellphone, Mr. Wing confirmed his sighting with a friend. They counted 22 anhingas and logged them into eBird, the online bird observation database.

“It was truly an incredible sight to behold,” he said.

Mr. Kaufman shares Mr. Wing’s enthusiasm for the rare encounter, while noting the growing number of anhingas seen in the Middle Atlantic States.

“Viewed in isolation, the flock upstate seems utterly astounding,” Mr. Kaufman said. “And it is, in the context of New York State records.”

Since the initial sighting in Brooklyn, throngs of delighted birders have visited Prospect Park hoping to catch a peek.

“While we’re excited to see the anhinga to N.Y.C., please watch from a distance and respect its space,” said Sarah Aucoin, the chief of education and wildlife for the New York City parks department. “It may not be from around here, but it’s still a wild animal for us to respect.”

Cycling Again

Recent, rapid ocean warming ahead of El Niño alarms scientists

A recent, rapid heating of the world's oceans has alarmed scientists concerned that it will add to global warming.

This month, the global sea surface hit a new record high temperature. It has never warmed this much, this quickly.

Scientists don't fully understand why this has happened.

But they worry that, combined with other weather events, the world's temperature could reach a concerning new level by the end of next year.

Experts believe that a strong El Niño weather event - a weather system that heats the ocean - will also set in over the next months.

Warmer oceans can kill off marine life, lead to more extreme weather and raise sea levels. They are also less efficient at absorbing planet-warming greenhouse gases.

What's the difference between El Niño and La Niña?

Accelerating melt of ice sheets now 'unmistakable'

An important new study, published last week with little fanfare, highlights a worrying development.

Over the past 15 years, the Earth has accumulated almost as much heat as it did in the previous 45 years, with most of the extra energy going into the oceans.

This is having real world consequences - not only did the overall temperature of the oceans hit a new record in April this year, in some regions the difference from the long term was enormous.

In March, sea surface temperatures off the east coast of North America were as much as 13.8C higher than the 1981-2011 average.

"It's not yet well established, why such a rapid change, and such a huge change is happening," said Karina Von Schuckmann, the lead author of the new study and an oceanographer at the research group Mercator Ocean International.

"We have doubled the heat in the climate system the last 15 years, I don't want to say this is climate change, or natural variability or a mixture of both, we don't know yet. But we do see this change."

One factor that could be influencing the level of heat going into the oceans is, interestingly, a reduction in pollution from shipping.

In 2020, the International Maritime Organisation put in place a regulation to reduce the sulphur content of fuel burned by ships.

This has had a rapid impact, reducing the amount of aerosol particles released into the atmosphere.

But aerosols that dirty the air also help reflect heat back into space - removing them may have caused more heat to enter the waters.

What are the impacts of ocean warming?

The average surface temperature of the world's seas has increased by around 0.9C compared to preindustrial levels, with 0.6C coming in the last 40 years alone.

This is less than increases in air temperatures over the land - which have risen by more than 1.5C since preindustrial times. This is because much more energy is needed to heat water than land, and because oceans absorb heat far below their surface.

Even this seemingly small average increase has significant real-world consequences.

Loss of species:

More frequent and intense marine heatwaves lead to mass mortality of sea life. This is particularly damaging for coral reefs.

More extreme weather:

Increased heat in the upper ocean surface means hurricanes and cyclones can pick up more energy. This means they become more intense and longer-lasting.

Sea-level rise:

Warmer waters take up more space - known as thermal expansion - and can greatly accelerate the melting of glaciers from Greenland and Antarctica that flow into the oceans. This raises global sea levels, increasing risks of coastal flooding.

Less ability to absorb CO2:

The oceans currently take up about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Warmer waters have less ability to absorb CO2. If the oceans take up less CO2 in future, more would accumulate in the atmosphere - further warming the air and oceans.

Another important factor that is worrying scientists is the weather phenomenon known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

For the past three years this naturally occurring event has been in a cooler phase called La Niña, and has helped keep global temperatures in check.

But researchers now believe that a strong El Niño is forming which will have significant implications for the world.

Unusually high sea surface temperatures
in the central and east tropical Pacific
is a classic sign of an El Niño phase

"The Australian Bureau's model does go strongly for a strong El Niño. And it has been trending that way and all the climate models have been trending that way to a stronger event," said Hugh McDowell from Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.

Mr McDowell cautioned that predictions at this point of the year are less reliable. Other researchers are more bullish.

A coastal El Niño has already developed off the shores of Peru and Ecuador and experts believe a fully formed event will follow with implications for global temperatures.

"If a new El Niño new comes on top of it, we will probably have additional global warming of 0.2-0.25C," said Dr Josef Ludescher, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

"The impact on the temperature is relaxed a few months after the peak of any El Niño so this is why 2024 will be probably the warmest on record."

"And we may, we will be close to 1.5C days and perhaps we will temporarily go over."

El Niño will likely disrupt weather patterns around the world, weaken the monsoon and threaten more wildfires in Australia.

But there are more fundamental worries that as more heat goes into the ocean, the waters may be less able to store excess energy.

And there are concerns that the heat contained in the oceans won't stay there.

Several scientists contacted for this story were reluctant to go on the record about the implications.

One spoke of being "extremely worried and completely stressed."

Some research has shown that world is warming in jumps, where little changes over a period of years and then there are sudden leaps upwards, like steps on a stairs, closely linked to the development of El Niño.

There is some hope in this scenario, according to Karina Von Schuckmann. Temperatures may come down again after the El Niño subsides.

"We still have a window where we can act and we should use this to reduce the consequences," she told BBC News.

Gearing Up

We can expect the usual chorus of "conservative" voices telling us not to conserve anything, and what the world really needs is real Americans who eat whatever they want to eat, and shit wherever they want to shit.

I guess we can only hope we raised our kids right - that they're beginning to see that nothing good happens if good people don't step up, get involved in whatever big or small way, stay involved, and insist on better.

E.P.A. Lays Out Rules to Turbocharge Sales of Electric Cars and Trucks

The Biden administration is proposing rules to ensure that two-thirds of new cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the U.S. by 2032 are all-electric.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday will propose the nation’s most ambitious climate regulations to date, two plans designed to ensure two-thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032.

If the two rules are enacted as proposed, they would put the world’s largest economy on track to slash its planet-warming emissions at the pace that scientists say is required of all nations in order to avert the most devastating impacts of climate change.

The new rules would require nothing short of a revolution in the U.S. auto industry. Last year, all-electric vehicles were just 5.8 percent of new car sales in the United States and fewer than 2 percent of new heavy trucks sold.

“By proposing the most ambitious pollution standards ever for cars and trucks, we are delivering on the Biden-Harris administration’s promise to protect people and the planet, securing critical reductions in dangerous air and climate pollution and ensuring significant economic benefits like lower fuel and maintenance costs for families,” the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Michael S. Regan, said in a statement.

The E.P.A. cannot mandate that carmakers sell a certain number of electric vehicles. But under the Clean Air Act, the agency can limit the pollution generated by the total number of cars each manufacturer sells. And the agency can set that limit so tightly that the only way manufacturers can comply is to sell a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles.

The proposed tailpipe pollution limits for cars, first reported by The New York Times on Saturday, are designed to ensure that 67 percent of sales of new light-duty passenger vehicles, from sedans to pickup trucks, will be all-electric by 2032. Additionally, 46 percent of sales of new medium-duty trucks, such as delivery vans, will be all-electric or of some other form of zero-emissions technology by the same year, according to the plan.

The E.P.A. also proposed a companion rule governing heavy-duty vehicles, designed so that half of new buses and 25 percent of new heavy trucks sold would be all-electric by 2032.

Combined, the two rules would eliminate the equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions generated over two years by all sectors of the economy in the United States, the second biggest polluting country on the planet after China.

But some autoworkers and manufacturers fear that the transition to all-electric vehicles envisioned by the Biden administration goes too far, too fast and could result in job losses and lower profits.

Major automakers have for the most part invested heavily in electrification. Nonetheless, several are apprehensive about customer demand for the pricier all-electric models; the supply of batteries; and the speed with which a national network of charging stations can be created.

Automakers and union workers have been expressing those fears directly to the president since 2021, when Mr. Biden announced an executive order directing government policies to ensure that 50 percent of all new passenger vehicle sales be all-electric by 2030.

As word began to spread last week that his new regulations were designed to go still further, some automakers pushed back.

John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents large U.S. and foreign automakers, questioned how the E.P.A. could justify “exceeding the carefully considered and data-driven goal announced by the administration in the executive order.”

“Yes, America’s transition to an electric and low-carbon transportation future is well underway,” Mr. Bozzella said in a statement. “E.V. and battery manufacturing is ramping up across the country because automakers have self-financed billions to expand vehicle electrification. It’s also true that E.P.A.’s proposed emissions plan is aggressive by any measure.”

“Remember this: A lot has to go right for this massive — and unprecedented — change in our automotive market and industrial base to succeed,” Mr. Bozzella said.

Engineers and scientists at the E.P.A. have been working over the past year to determine how much electric vehicle technology is likely to advance in the next decade in order to set the strongest, achievable tailpipe emissions limits.

Tensions between the auto industry and the Biden administration played out over the past week, as the administration was forced to rearrange its rollout of the proposal, according to three people familiar with what happened.

Officials had originally planned for Mr. Regan to announce the policies in Detroit, surrounded by American-made all-electric vehicles.

But as auto executives and the United Auto Workers learned the details of the proposed regulations, some grew uneasy about publicly supporting it, according to the people familiar with their thinking. The setting was moved from Detroit to the E.P.A. headquarters in Washington, where Mr. Regan is scheduled to make remarks Wednesday at 11 a.m.

In an interview, Mr. Regan acknowledged that some auto executives and leaders of the United Auto Workers had expressed anxiety over the proposals — adding that they could be amended to assuage those fears.

“We’re very mindful that this is a proposal, and we want to give as much flexibility possible,” he said. The agency will accept public comments on the proposed rules before they are finalized next year. The rules would take effect starting with model year 2027.

Environmentalists praised Mr. Biden for delivering on a promise he made during his first days in office, when he called climate change a “moral imperative, an economic imperative” that would be central to all his decision-making.

A 2021 report by the International Energy Agency found that nations would have to stop sales of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 to keep average global temperatures from increasing 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Beyond that point, scientists say, the effects of catastrophic heat waves, flooding, drought, crop failures and species extinction would become significantly harder for humanity to handle. The planet has already warmed by an average of about 1.1 degrees Celsius.

Mr. Biden has pledged to cut the country’s emissions in half by 2030 and to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2050. He took a major step toward meeting that target last summer, when he signed the Inflation Reduction Act. It includes $370 billion in spending over the next decade to fight climate change, including tax incentives up to $7,500 for the purchase of American-made electric vehicles.

That law is projected to help the United States cut its emissions by 40 percent by 2030 — not quite enough to meet Mr. Biden’s pledge. Experts said the new E.P.A. regulations, if enacted as proposed, are needed to reach Mr. Biden’s goal.

“The EPA standards are a huge step forward in addressing the largest source of climate pollution: transportation,” said Luke Tonachel, senior director of the clean vehicles and buildings program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.

A sharp rise in electric vehicles in the United States could mean wider availability and sales of electric vehicles outside its borders, Mr. Tonachel said. “This can be a world-leading standard that puts the world on a much-needed pathway for curbing global pollution from transportation,” he said.

Laurence Tubiana, the CEO of the European Climate Foundation who helped broker the 2015 Paris climate accord, welcomed the E.P.A.’s action.

“This is confirmation to the world of the seriousness of the engagement of Joe Biden on climate change and keeps the U.S. as a front-runner on climate,” Ms. Tubiana said. “It’s resonating very well in Europe and the world.”

Still, others see the proposed regulations as government overreach and say they will surely face legal challenges.

“They are using this established longstanding statute for an entirely new purpose, to force an entirely new goal — the transformation of the industry to electric vehicles,” said Steven G. Bradbury, who served as the chief legal counsel for the Transportation Department during the Trump administration. “This is clearly driven by the president’s directive to achieve these results. I don’t think you can do this. Congress never contemplated the use of statutes in this way.”

Key Phrase:

"I don't think you can do this"

Translated:

• We don't want to do this because it threatens the status quo that makes us a very comfortable living, and keeps a few of us in power at the expense of everybody else
• We'll burn this joint to the ground fighting to keep from having to make the changes necessary to ensure a planet suitable for human habitation

Traditional conservative doctrine

has transformed the GOP

into a full-blown death cult.

Yacht Buyers

The author makes one slip - he assumes the mega-wealthy can be shamed.

It can work with some - kinda - but it's wrong-headed, and needs to be stomped out of our thinking.

Plutocrats assume they're very special in a very special kind of way. They think their genius at "creating wealth" exempts them from the need for the moral code that binds the rest of us to each other.

The need to adhere to an ethical framework is just not something they believe applies to them.

Above all else, they need to believe their own press clippings about how they're different from other people, so they get to do things and live in ways that no one else can. They hate the "collective", so they have to hate anything that requires a collective effort - except of course the collective effort that keeps putting billions in their pockets, or the one that looks a lot like the crew of a SuperYacht.

The Superyachts of Billionaires Are Starting to Look a Lot Like Theft

If you’re a billionaire with a palatial boat, there’s only one thing to do in mid-May: Chart your course for Istanbul and join your fellow elites for an Oscars-style ceremony honoring the builders, designers and owners of the world’s most luxurious vessels, many of them over 200 feet long.

The nominations for the World Superyacht Awards were all delivered in 2022, and the largest contenders are essentially floating sea mansions, complete with amenities like glass elevators, glass-sided pools, Turkish baths and all-teak decks. The 223-foot Nebula, owned by the WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, comes with an air-conditioned helicopter hangar.

I hate to be a wet blanket, but the ceremony in Istanbul is disgraceful. Owning or operating a superyacht is probably the most harmful thing an individual can do to the climate. If we’re serious about avoiding climate chaos, we need to tax, or at the very least shame, these resource-hoarding behemoths out of existence. In fact, taking on the carbon aristocracy, and their most emissions-intensive modes of travel and leisure, may be the best chance we have to boost our collective “climate morale” and increase our appetite for personal sacrifice — from individual behavior changes to sweeping policy mandates.

On an individual basis, the superrich pollute far more than the rest of us, and travel is one of the biggest parts of that footprint. Take, for instance, Rising Sun, the 454-foot, 82-room megaship owned by the DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen. According to a 2021 analysis in the journal Sustainability, the diesel fuel powering Mr. Geffen’s boating habit spews an estimated 16,320 tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent gases into the atmosphere annually, almost 800 times what the average American generates in a year.

And that’s just a single ship. Worldwide, more than 5,500 private vessels clock in about 100 feet or longer, the size at which a yacht becomes a superyacht. This fleet pollutes as much as entire nations: The 300 biggest boats alone emit 315,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year, based on their likely usage — about as much as Burundi’s more than 10 million inhabitants. Indeed, a 200-foot vessel burns 132 gallons of diesel fuel an hour standing still, and can guzzle 2,200 gallons just to travel 100 nautical miles.

Then there are the private jets, which make up a much higher overall contribution to climate change. Private aviation added 37 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2016, which rivals the annual emissions of Hong Kong or Ireland. (Private plane use has surged since then, so today’s number is likely higher.)

You’re probably thinking: But isn’t that a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of coal plants around the world spewing carbon? It’s a common sentiment; last year, Christophe Béchu, France’s minister of the environment, dismissed calls to regulate yachts and chartered flights as “le buzz” — flashy, populist solutions that get people amped up but ultimately only fiddle at the margins of climate change.

But this misses a much more important point. Research in economics and psychology suggests humans are willing to behave altruistically — but only when they believe everyone is being asked to contribute. People “stop cooperating when they see that some are not doing their part,” as the cognitive scientists Nicolas Baumard and Coralie Chevallier wrote last year in Le Monde.

In that sense, superpolluting yachts and jets don’t just worsen climate change, they lessen the chance that we will work together to fix it. Why bother, when the luxury goods mogul Bernard Arnault is cruising around on the Symphony, a $150 million, 333-foot superyacht?

“If some people are allowed to emit 10 times as much carbon for their comfort,” Mr. Baumard and Ms. Chevallier asked, “then why restrict your meat consumption, turn down your thermostat or limit your purchases of new products?”

Whether we’re talking about voluntary changes (insulating our attics and taking public transit) or mandated ones (tolerating a wind farm on the horizon or saying goodbye to a lush lawn), the climate fight hinges to some extent on our willingness to participate. When the ultrarich are given a free pass, we lose faith in the value of that sacrifice.

Taxes aimed at superyachts and private jets would take some of the sting out of these conversations, helping to improve everybody’s climate morale,” a term coined by Georgetown Law professor Brian Galle. But making these overgrown toys a bit more costly isn’t likely to change the behavior of the billionaires who buy them. Instead, we can impose new social costs through good, old-fashioned shaming.

Last June, @CelebJets — a Twitter account that tracked the flights of well-known figures using public data, then calculated their carbon emissions for all to see — revealed that the influencer Kylie Jenner took a 17-minute flight between two regional airports in California. “kylie jenner is out here taking 3 minute flights with her private jet, but I’m the one who has to use paper straws,” one Twitter user wrote.

As media outlets around the world covered the backlash, other celebrities like Drake and Taylor Swift scrambled to defend their heavy reliance on private plane travel. (Twitter suspended the @CelebJets account in December after Elon Musk, a frequent target of jet-tracking accounts, acquired the platform.)

There’s a lesson here: Massively disproportionate per capita emissions get people angry. And they should. When billionaires squander our shared supply of resources on ridiculous boats or cushy chartered flights, it shortens the span of time available for the rest of us before the effects of warming become truly devastating. In this light, superyachts and private planes start to look less like extravagance and more like theft.

Change can happen — and quickly. French officials are exploring curbing private plane travel. And just last week — after sustained pressure from activists — Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam announced it would ban private jets as a climate-saving measure.

Even in the United States, carbon shaming can have outsized impact. Richard Aboulafia, who’s been an aviation industry consultant and analyst for 35 years, says that cleaner, greener aviation, from all-electric city hoppers to a new class of sustainable fuels, is already on the horizon for short flights. Private aviation’s high-net-worth customers just need more incentive to adopt these new technologies. Ultimately, he says, it’s only our vigilance and pressure that will speed these changes along.

There’s a similar opportunity with superyachts. Just look at Koru, Jeff Bezos’s newly built 416-foot megaship, a three-masted schooner that can reportedly cross the Atlantic on wind power alone. It’s a start.

Even small victories challenge the standard narrative around climate change. We can say no to the idea of limitless plunder, of unjustifiable overconsumption. We can say no to the billionaires’ toys.

SuperYacht sinks off Italian coast

The Meh Salt Lake

It's certainly not the Great Salt Lake anymore.

And I'll bet dollars to dingleberries that nobody had "Death By Giant Clouds Of Arsenic Dust" on their Climate Change game card.

Drying Great Salt Lake Could Expose Millions to Toxic Arsenic-Laced Dust

The largest saline lake in North America is on track to collapse within five years, a new report finds

Utah’s drying Great Salt Lake is on track to collapse in five years, if the current water loss trends continue, according to a new report released this month. This could expose millions of people to toxic arsenic-laced dust from the lakebed.

The report, authored by a team of 32 ecologists and conservationists, points to excessive water use as the decline’s primary driver. Climate change, which has worsened the West’s drought, is a secondary contributor.

“The first law of ecology is ‘everything is connected.’ The collapse or recovery of the Great Salt Lake will have regional and even hemispheric impacts. Losing it would be a global tragedy,” report lead author Benjamin Abbott, an ecosystem ecologist at Brigham Young University, tells Live Science’s Ben Turner. “We’ve got to rapidly decrease our water use or suffer the consequences. You can’t negotiate with nature.”

The Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in North America. It directly provides about $2.5 billion in economic productivity each year and supports about 9,000 local jobs, per the report. Evaporation from the lake increases snowfall in the nearby mountains by 5 to 10 percent annually, bringing in another 20,000 jobs and $1.8 billion per year.

While humans have been affecting the lake’s water since the 1800s, it wasn’t until the construction of dams, canals and pipelines in the 20th century that we became the “dominant force controlling the lake,” write the authors.

In 2017, Science’s Sarah Derouin reported that people living in the area diverted 3.3 trillion liters of water annually from the streams feeding into the lake. Agriculture accounts for about 75 percent of the watershed’s demand, followed by water lost in transport, used in mineral extraction and piped to cities and industry, notably for irrigating lawns.

The lake’s water level is now 19 feet below its average, and it has lost 73 percent of its water and 60 percent of its surface area since 1850, write the authors. Since 2020, the lake has dropped 1.2 million acre-feet per year. To reverse the decline, water use in the Great Salt Lake watershed would need to be cut by a third to a half—and quickly, per the authors.

“We have to shift from thinking of nature as a commodity, as a natural resource, to what we’ve learned over the last 50 years in ecology, and what Indigenous cultures have always known,” Abbott tells the Washington Post’s Sarah Kaplan and Brady Dennis. “Humans depend on the environment … We have to think about, ‘What does the lake need to be healthy?’ and manage our water use with what remains.”

As the lakebed becomes exposed, toxic dust mixed with metals and metalloids like antimony, copper, zirconium and arsenic become a problem, per Live Science. The dust could lead to soil degradation and snow melt, as well as raise residents’ risk of respiratory conditions, heart disease, lung disease and cancers.

Research suggests the wealthy and suburban areas of Salt Lake City will face the most of the dust storms’ impact, but dust is also a concern for people who have historically faced decades of environmental disparities on Salt Lake City’s west side, writes Evan Bush for NBC News.

“Nanoparticles of dust have potential to cause just as much harm if they come from dry lake bed as from a tailpipe or a smokestack,” Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, tells the Post. He adds that the lake shrinking is a “bona fide, documented, unquestionable health hazard.”

The wildlife that call the lake home are also imminently threatened. The water has become too salty for brine flies, a key species in the ecosystem’s food web. Millions of migratory birds that rely on the lake are now facing habitat loss. Brine shrimp, which feed millions of people across the world, could lose their watery abode.

Candice Hasenyager, the director of the Utah Division of Water Resources, tells Live Science this is an “all-hands-on-deck emergency.”

“Protecting and preserving the Great Salt Lake is a top priority for the state,” she tells the publication. “The lake is vital to the environment, ecology and economy, not just in Utah but also to the western United States.”

Sounds Like Life

We'll miss this when it's gone.

Opinion

Why Tiny Ponds and Singing Frogs Matter So Much

NASHVILLE — I wish you could hear what it sounds like to sleep near an ephemeral pond in early springtime on the Cumberland Plateau, especially on a rainy night. As darkness begins to fall, the small frogs called spring peepers begin to sing. At first their song is the sonic equivalent of the way popcorn pops: each peep a single sound, each sound buffered on either side by silence.

Peep.

Peep.

Peep.

Peep.

Then: Peep. Peep. Peep. Peep. Peep. Peep.

Finally it’s PeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeepPeep.

As darkness gathers, new songs gather, too. Soon the whole pond is singing, and the night becomes an amphitheater for the chorus. Scriiiiiitch, scriiiiiitch, scriiiiiitch, sing the upland chorus frogs. Oooeeeeeeeeeee, oooeeeeeeeeeee, sing the American toads. Sometimes you can hear the rattly keeuk, keeuk, keeuk of the wood frogs, too, and the raspy aaa-aaa-aaa-aaa of the gray tree frogs.

These miniature wetlands on the stony plateau also draw an array of salamanders. In any given ephemeral pond, there will almost certainly be spotted salamanders and probably marbled salamanders and mole salamanders, too. The deeper into the Southern Appalachians you go, the more salamanders there are. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is known as the Salamander Capital of the World.

Ephemeral ponds — which are also called vernal pools — first appear in winter as water collects in depressions and shallow basins in the forest. Snowmelt and spring rains, not running water, keep the ponds filled, and cold air slows the rate of evaporation. Under these conditions, any low-lying area in the woods that will hold water will also become a magnet for amphibians.

Because vernal pools are not fed by creeks or streams, they dry up in the heat of summer and therefore cannot support fish, which feed on amphibian eggs and larvae. This absence of fish, along with the pond’s abundant insect and crustacean life and the manifold hiding places in a body of water dense with sticks and rotting leaves, makes an ephemeral pond the ideal nursery for tadpoles and larval salamanders.

Annual but temporary wetlands can be found all over the country at this time of year, but the ponds I am most familiar with are the ones that lie on the Cumberland Plateau surrounding the college town of Sewanee. Like nearly all ephemeral ponds, too many lie on private land and are vulnerable to the possibility of development.

Amphibians are indicator species. Because their porous skin is particularly sensitive to changes in the environment, the health of an ecosystem’s amphibian population is one way to measure the health of the ecosystem itself. When frogs and toads and salamanders thrive, everybody thrives.

But amphibian populations are declining by roughly 4 percent every year, according to the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, a national nonprofit. “The loss of habitat is by far the biggest threat to amphibian survival and the No. 1 cause of population decline,” JJ Apodaca, the executive director of the conservancy, told me last week.

It doesn’t take much to disrupt a wetland habitat, especially one as small as a vernal pond: “Just a slight change in the landscape can eliminate an ephemeral pool and eliminate reproduction possibilities for thousands of amphibians,” Dr. Apodaca said. Even a simple drainage ditch can be devastating: “As soon as you put in a ditch, it drains the water table and dries out the land.”

Dr. Apodaca calls the disappearance of ephemeral ponds “a secret loss,” especially when the surrounding forest is still largely intact. “We see trees, we see habitat somewhere, and we think it’s all good. What we don’t see is that it has lost its vernal pools and ponds, this important component of the landscape.” Once the pond is gone, the amphibians and insects, and the creatures that feed on amphibians and insects, are also gone.

A shiny black salamander viewed up close sliding crawling through a bed of moss.
Three-lined salamanders traverse a patch of moss.

As crucial as these micro wetlands are to the immense biodiversity of the Southern Appalachians, ephemeral ponds enjoy no federal protections. Under current interpretations of the Clean Water Act, it’s their isolation from other waterways — the very quality that makes them so critical to amphibian reproduction — that puts them in danger. And that’s just one example of why the conservancy concentrates much of its efforts on habitat conservation and restoration.

The news from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week is absorbing all the headlines, and that’s as it should be. When the planet’s premier climate scientists concur that we have less than 10 years to hold off a cataclysm, we desperately need to hear the urgency in their words.

We are facing nothing less than an existential crisis, and in that context the potential loss of a few amphibians in a few unprotected wetlands might not be the greatest source of grief in the world. These little vernal pools might seem expendable, hardly more than a storybook enchantment for children still enthralled to tales of princesses whose only reason to kiss a frog is to turn it back into a prince.

But the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are twinned and intertwined. The earth is a magnificent, breathing organism, and every species contributes to its survival. We might not always know exactly how they do that, but we know they exist as part of a balance that is slipping away. When we work to preserve frogs and salamanders — when we work to preserve any species — we are working to preserve life on earth as we know it.

I have grown deeply attached to a particular spring-singing pond on a bluff outside Sewanee, a disappearing pond so full of nighttime song that I always long to replicate it once I’m back home in Nashville. Such a thing is not possible, of course. I don’t live in a forest. Too many of my neighbors drench their yards in the lawn-care poisons that make rainwater runoff lethal for amphibians. I have not seen a toad in this yard for decades, and every year the tree frogs singing in the trees grow fewer and fewer.

Last spring I bought a container meant to provide water for livestock. Surrounding it, I installed the kinds of marginal plants that grow on the edges of wetlands — cardinal flower and creeping jenny and blue flag iris. To the tank itself I added anacharis and hornwort and duckweed to oxygenate the water and provide hiding places for tadpoles. And then I waited. Not a single tree frog came to lay her eggs there.

I remain hopeful anyway. After a year in the elements, my stock-tank pond now offers a soft layer of mud at the bottom and plenty of lovely, rotting leaves. It’s as tiny as the tiniest ephemeral pond, and there is nary a tadpole-eating fish within its shallows. This year I will add another stock-tank pond nearby, and next year another, and the year after that another still. One day, I believe, the tree frogs will find me and the nursery I built for them.

Meantime, the spring nights have grown warm and rainy, and I listen in the darkness for the love song of tree frogs outside my window. In the mornings, I look for eggs.

Who's Doin' What?

Kentucky floodwaters receded six months ago. For many, the crisis goes on.

‘People need housing now,’ says the head of one local nonprofit. ‘They need to know there’s a light at the end of this tunnel.’

HAZARD, Ky. — Gerry Roll lets out a sigh when she thinks about the endless pleas that have poured into her inbox over the past six months.

“I am desperately seeking help,” one man wrote this winter, saying the floods that devastated Eastern Kentucky in late July had knocked out his heating system. “Are there any resources that can help me out with that? I am cold and freezing at times.”

Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.
“Myself and my daughter both lost our homes. … We would be so grateful for any assistance,” wrote another woman, explaining that there was no money to rebuild.

Every extreme weather disaster leaves a lasting mark, often displacing people in its path. But the biblical floods in Eastern Kentucky have highlighted a deepening reality that many communities face as climate change fuels catastrophes of greater intensity and frequency: a housing crisis that persists long after the immediate disaster has faded.

A flood-damaged home in Ary, Ky., last month. (Arden S. Barnes for The Washington Post)
“I just don’t think people can grasp what a huge issue housing is,” says Roll, the chief executive of the nonprofit Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky. “People need housing now; they need a place to live now. They need to know there’s a light at the end of this tunnel.”

For many, that light has been hard to find.

Mile after mile, county after county, the hills and hollers of Eastern Kentucky are littered with reminders of the floods that unleashed sudden and staggering suffering, killing more than 40 people and leaving hundreds of families homeless.

Spray-painted orange X’s left by search teams are still visible on waterlogged, abandoned homes. Front steps still stand after the houses to which they were once attached were ripped away by the rushing water. Vehicles lie twisted and mired in mud. Tree branches are littered with pieces of lives upended — basketball hoops and tricycles, toilets and Christmas decorations, headboards and books and pieces of metal roofs.

Research shows that particularly in low-income rural communities with limited housing supply and a population that is often uninsured or underinsured, residents can end up in a perpetual state of limbo after disasters. That reality is unfolding in Eastern Kentucky.

Without the means to repair damaged homes, obtain mortgages or scrape together rent, some people here are living in homes without electricity or running water, doubling up with relatives, staying in camping trailers or even tents — often with no end in sight. Some have moved away.

Between cash-strapped local governments, under-resourced nonprofit organizations and slow-moving federal recovery efforts, many residents have concluded that they are largely on their own.

“We already had a housing crisis,” said Scott McReynolds, the executive director of the Housing Development Alliance in Hazard, Ky. The floods made the problem far worse. “It’s staggering,” he said. “Folks are having to make hard decisions.”

One recent analysis found that 6 in 10 Kentucky families with homes damaged in the floods have annual incomes of $30,000 or less, a reality that makes recovery only more daunting, said Eric Dixon, a senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, a think tank that conducted the study.

“It’s very difficult to see how the folks who lost their homes are going to find the money to rebuild,” he said.

‘Housing, housing, housing’

It’s dark by the time the meeting of the Breathitt County Long Term Recovery Team convenes in the basement room of a Methodist church just off Main Street in Jackson.

The two dozen people sipping coffee from paper cups represent numerous groups — the Red Cross, nonprofit groups, faith-based organizations, local government — working to help flood victims navigate a sea of ongoing needs six months after the unprecedented disaster.

But one issue rises to the top again and again.

“Housing, housing, housing,” says Jackson Mayor Laura Thomas.

On this night, group members mull over some of the hundreds of cases they are managing. One asks if anyone knows a contractor who can repair foundations wrecked by floodwaters. Another offers mold spray to anyone who can use it.

Another shares that a Catholic charitable group is donating building supplies and air-conditioning systems. A church in New Jersey wants to provide 300 refrigerators to people who need them. A humanitarian group has committed to building 20 houses nearby. There’s talk of how to prepare to apply for federal disaster grants, and of drafting a letter to state lawmakers.

Even as the group is desperate to build and rebuild housing, everyone agrees that another aim is equally important. “Ultimately,” says Jamie Mullins-Smith, the group’s co-chair, “the goal is to get people out of the flood plain.”

Not long ago, Roll’s foundation surveyed thousands of families to which it had offered assistance.

Fewer than half of the respondents were back in their homes at the time, and even then many were left to tackle mold and other damage. More than a quarter said they were living with relatives. Others were scattered among camping trailers and hotels. Some said they were living in tents, vehicles, storage buildings and barns.

A University of Kentucky ribbon wreath outside a camper in Carr Creek State Park campground in Sassafras, Ky., last month. (Arden S. Barnes for The Washington Post)

Debris and items damaged by floodwaters outside a home on the outskirts of Hindman, Ky., last month. (Arden S. Barnes for The Washington Post)
Thousands of people will need help for a long time, Roll said. “We know how to do this work,” she said. “What we don’t have is enough capacity to do it fast enough.”

The recent report from the Ohio River Valley Institute, which collaborated on it with the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, estimated a cost of $450 million to $950 million to rebuild roughly 9,000 homes damaged by the floods, the bulk in the hard-hit counties of Breathitt, Knott, Letcher and Perry.

The lower figure is for repairing or rebuilding homes largely where they stood before the disaster. Relocating and replacing homes to less-flood-prone areas would cost far more in the short term, the group wrote, but could prevent more damage and death in the long run.

Any recovery will rely in no small part on outside funding and resources.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, said in an update this month that the government had approved $158 million in grants and low-interest disaster loans in the region.

That includes money intended for temporary housing, replacing personal property and meeting other immediate needs. Awards for housing assistance are generally capped at $37,900 — many people received far less — leaving a gap between sums awarded and what is required to repair many damaged homes.

“FEMA assistance is designed to meet a survivor’s basic needs. It will not fully compensate someone for the loss of their home and personal property,” the agency has written.

Last week, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge traveled to Eastern Kentucky to announce $300 million of aid — part of nearly $3.4 billion in grants set aside by Congress for disaster recovery in Florida, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. The funds are intended to help with numerous challenges, including economic revitalization, infrastructure repair and housing.

“I think that people feel left out and forgotten, when month after month they see no real progress, and only through the help of their own family or friends are they able to get by,” Fudge said in an interview during her visit. She said she came to impart a simple message: “We have not forgotten.”

Kentucky must create a plan for spending the money. But if that happens quickly and HUD approves it, Fudge said, money could begin to flow in as few as 60 days — unusually quickly for the federal government.

“What I want to see is us building housing that is going to be resilient, that is going to be able to stand up to the next storm,” she said. “We don’t want to build the same housing they have now. We don’t want to build in the same locations, in some instances.”

For its part, Kentucky’s legislature allocated $213 million of disaster funding in August but did not designate money specifically for housing. The bulk of the funds were aimed at shoring up key infrastructure such as bridges and roads, and helping to get schools functioning again.

Housing advocates have pushed state lawmakers to create an emergency affordable-housing fund — with an initial $150 million investment — that could be tapped after disasters to expedite repairs, elevate homes and build new houses. That idea has not yet succeeded, but the legislature last week voted to reallocate $20 million toward a rural-housing trust fund that will prioritize disaster recovery.

Even before the most recent floods in Eastern Kentucky, parts of the state endured another episode of severe flooding and devastating tornado damage in 2021. As the prospect of more compounding disasters looms in the future, advocates worry that recovery will only become harder.

“We are having more and more extreme weather events,” said Adrienne Bush, the executive director of the Homeless & Housing Coalition of Kentucky. “And our housing built in the 20th century is not up to the task.”

In recent months, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has announced plans to build hundreds of new homes on higher ground — using a 50-acre parcel in Perry County, a 75-acre spot in Knott County and possibly other places to be designated — with construction partly funded with flood-relief money.

Finding usable land can be difficult in Eastern Kentucky, where narrow valleys and steep mountain terrain complicate building. It remains unclear how soon new housing would be available under those projects.

In the meantime, McReynolds said, “Every day, people are spending the resources they have on partial solutions or less-than-ideal solutions.”

Shannon Van Zandt, a professor of urban planning at Texas A&M University who studies the intersection of affordable housing with disasters, has seen how a catastrophe can affect low-income communities. When a tornado or hurricane or wildfire strikes, those who lack adequate insurance or steady incomes or have little savings lose their homes. And so begins a struggle that can last for years.

She and other researchers have found that housing in higher-income neighborhoods bounces back faster, and that at nearly every stage of recovery, populations that begin with fewer resources encounter more obstacles, often exacerbating existing inequities.

“It really is a long-term thing, especially for really vulnerable populations,” Van Zandt said. “We see a disaster and we think, ‘Well, it’s over.’ But it’s really just beginning for the people that experience it.”

‘One day at a time’

For many residents here in Eastern Kentucky, an ending seems far away.

“I expected to be out no more than two months. Six months later, we are still here,” Megan Hutson, a 33-year-old hospital employee, said one afternoon at Carr Creek State Park, one of the spots where Kentucky once housed hundreds of flood victims.

The numbers have dwindled, but some families still are navigating where to go next. Hutson has lived here since August with her young daughter after their mobile home was knocked from its foundation and destroyed.

“I’m blessed to have a place to go,” said Hutson, who has worked to secure a loan on a new home. Even so, she said, “I worry when it rains.”

Thirty-five miles north in Lost Creek, Lena Shouse also is trying to rebuild her home and her life. The fast-rising waters inundated the brick house where she has lived since 2004, ruining everything in the basement and first floor, and destroying the mobile home where her son lived on the property.

Shouse had been sleeping in her car some days by the time President Biden stopped on her street and met with her family as he surveyed flood damage on Aug. 8.

“It’s going to take a while to get through this, but I promise you we’re not leaving,” Biden said that day a couple of blocks away. “As long as it takes, we’re going be here, and we are committed.”

Six months later, Shouse was spending a Tuesday afternoon sanding the drywall she had recently installed. Debris still sat piled in her yard. Water from broken gutters dripped into plastic buckets.

Family members and co-workers had helped her shovel mud from her basement and rip out sopping insulation. She had lived for a while with her daughter and had received financial help from the Red Cross and FEMA, she said, although not enough to replace all that was destroyed.

“I’ve pretty well done everything by myself,” said Shouse, who did not have flood insurance.

Despite the work that remained, she said she felt lucky still to have a home, unlike so many other people nearby.

“I’m just concentrating on getting everything back together,” she said. “I just take it one day at a time.”

More on climate change

• Understanding our climate: Global warming is a real phenomenon, and weather disasters are undeniably linked to it. As temperatures rise, heat waves are more often sweeping the globe — and parts of the world are becoming too hot to survive.
• What can be done? The Post is tracking a variety of climate solutions, as well as the Biden administration’s actions on environmental issues. It can feel overwhelming facing the impacts of climate change, but there are ways to cope with climate anxiety.
• Inventive solutions: Some people have built off-the-grid homes from trash to stand up to a changing climate. As seas rise, others are exploring how to harness marine energy.
• What about your role in climate change? Our climate coach Michael J. Coren is answering questions about environmental choices in our everyday lives. Submit yours here. You can also sign up for our Climate Coach newsletter.