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SEC Urged to End Trump Push to Eliminate Climate Disclosure Rules for Major Companies

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Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

“Rescinding the rule would not eliminate climate risk from the market—it simply blindfolds investors to it, at their own expense,” said one critic.

Consumer and environmental advocates on Monday called for the Securities and Exchange Commission to end its push to rescind rules requiring companies to disclose risks related to climate change.

The SEC first adopted the climate disclosure rules in 2024, with the commission describing them as a response to “investors’ demand for more consistent, comparable, and reliable information about the financial effects of climate-related risks on a registrant’s operations.”

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But in June, the SEC—now under the leadership of President Donald Trump-appointed chair Paul Atkins—proposed scrapping the rules, which the commission described as “an overreach of statutory authority and unsound policy.”

Elyse Schupak, climate policy advocate for Public Citizen, said that ending the disclosure rules would reflect “the desire of Paul Atkins’ SEC to ignore growing financial risks from climate change and to deprive investors of essential information.”

“For polluting industries that seek to downplay their role driving the climate crisis and their exposure to related risks, finalizing the proposed rule would be a victory,” said Schupak. “The SEC should withdraw this proposal as it contradicts the commission’s responsibility to facilitate transparency for investors and promote well functioning capital markets.”

Alex Martin, climate finance policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, noted that many investors spoke up in favor of the disclosure rules when they were first proposed because they saw climate risk assessment as a valuable information to have before making major financial decisions.

If the new proposal is finalized, Martin added, it “will hurt workers saving for retirement by depriving people of information needed to assess companies’ financial risks due to climate change—and by endangering other critical disclosures as well.”

Benjamin Schiffrin, director of securities policy for Better Markets, similarly argued that scrapping the SEC rules “will deprive investors of material information essential to making informed investment decisions.”

“There can no longer be any serious dispute that the climate-related risk companies face matters greatly to their future prospects,” Schiffrin emphasized. “An SEC that was serious about protecting investors would be facilitating investors’ access to this information, not preventing them from understanding how climate-related risks are impacting the companies in which they invest their hard-earned money.”

Janet Ranganathan, managing director at the World Resources Institute, said repealing the rule was particularly nonsensical at a time when the country is dealing with multiple climate-related disasters, including wildfires in the Pacific Northwest.

“Rescinding the rule would not eliminate climate risk from the market—it simply blindfolds investors to it, at their own expense,” said Ranganathan. “Climate risk should not become the exception to smart financial management simply because it has become politically contentious.”

Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.


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Continue ReadingSEC Urged to End Trump Push to Eliminate Climate Disclosure Rules for Major Companies

Climate Crisis Is Not ‘Some Faraway Threat’: Spokane Inferno Forces Mass Evacuations as Oil Profits Surge

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Article by republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

The rubble of a burned out residential home smolders in the Balboa neighborhood of Spokane, Washington, on August 2, 2026. (Photo by Erick Doxey/AFP via Getty Images)

“The fossil fuel industry may not have struck the match, but the climate crisis they drove has loaded our landscapes with tinder,” said an environmental activist.

Over 60,000 people were ordered to evacuate the Spokane area over the weekend as it was devastated by what Democratic Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell called the “top fire” in a nation currently being scorched by climate-fueled blazes.

Illustrating how the climate crisis is already impacting lives and communities across the country and the globe, three raging fires reportedly consumed over 600 structures as of Sunday, including homes and businesses, and reduced entire streets to their foundations.

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At a briefing on Sunday afternoon, officials said more than 250,000 acres were burning across Washington, but reported no deaths or injuries.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown called it “the worst natural disaster our region has faced.”

Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson has requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is under the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) wrote on social media that she had spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and that he “made clear the federal government will do everything it can to support response and recovery,” though President Donald Trump has previously intervened to block disaster aid to Democrat-led states.

While the fires moderated over the weekend, on Monday they remained largely uncontained and continued to spread due to dry conditions from recent severe droughts in the region, exacerbated by rising global temperatures.

“This is climate change playing out live in real time,” said meteorologist and Climate Central journalist Shel Winkley in a video about the Spokane fires.

Warmer temperatures, he explained, have caused a vicious cycle of “weather whiplash” in which greater winter rainfall facilitates plant growth before harsher summer heat domes suck moisture from these plants, turning them into a tinderbox.

“Northeastern Washington and central Oregon now see at least three more weeks of fire weather days each year than they did just back in the 1970s,” Winkley said. “More fire weather days means more chances for a spark, any spark, to turn into this.”

The blazes are part of a nationwide trend, with wildfires this year more severe on average than in previous years. Over the past decade, the average annual acreage burned in the US was more than double the average of the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center.

Last week, an Oxfam analysis of data published in the journal Nature found that emissions from just five oil companies—BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies—were sufficient to cause around 1 in 4 heatwaves reported globally between 2000 and 2023—“heatwaves that would have been virtually impossible without human-made climate change.”

Using S&P Capital Trucost data, the group estimated that Big Oil was responsible for more than $60 billion in environmental damage last year.

But as costs fall on the public, oil companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil have reported record profits of $12.1 billion and $14.5 billion over the past quarter, in part due to global oil price spikes driven by Trump’s war with Iran.

“The fossil fuel industry may not have struck the match, but the climate crisis they drove has loaded our landscapes with tinder,” said Clémence Dubois, the campaigns director for the environmental group 350.org. “Chevron and Exxon are profiteering from a model of distraction, leaving ordinary people to pay the price with higher bills and devastating impacts such as these fires. These profits feel almost criminal.”

Jay Inslee, Washington’s former Democratic governor and a longtime advocate for policies to combat the climate crisis, said on Sunday that his friend, a legislator from Spokane, had been forced to flee his home due to the fires.

“Climate change isn’t some faraway threat,” Inslee said. “It’s happening right now, to our neighbors and friends. We have to fight for them.”

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

Continue ReadingClimate Crisis Is Not ‘Some Faraway Threat’: Spokane Inferno Forces Mass Evacuations as Oil Profits Surge

Arron Banks ‘hired private detective’ to look into journalist who investigated Reform UK

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/08/arron-banks-hired-private-detective-to-look-into-journalist-who-investigated-reform-uk

Arron Banks said he believed the Sunday Times used hacked information, an accusation the newspaper denied. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Asked whether he targeted reporter who investigated party finances, Brexit campaigner says: ‘When you live by the sword, you die by the sword’

The prominent Reform UK member and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks is said to have set private investigators on a Sunday Times journalist after he broke a series of stories about Nigel Farage.

Banks is alleged to have paid for the services of investigators to examine Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the paper’s Insight investigations team.

…

The Sunday Times and the Guardian have broken a series of stories in recent months revealing how cash has poured into Reform and Farage personally from donors and wealthy benefactors.

Pogrund is believed to have been targeted after a story in the Sunday Times last month revealed that Farage has received financial support from the convicted criminal George Cottrell, known as “Posh George”.

In response to the New Statesman report, Banks said: “We believe the Sunday Times used hacked information and that was an area of interest. We do have an investigative arm that’s got advanced capabilities.”

Asked directly whether he had paid investigators to look into Pogrund, he said: “When you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”

…

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/08/arron-banks-hired-private-detective-to-look-into-journalist-who-investigated-reform-uk

Nigel Farage reminds you that he's the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

Continue ReadingArron Banks ‘hired private detective’ to look into journalist who investigated Reform UK

Italy to place all 27 of its major cities on highest heat alert

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/05/italy-heatwave-major-cities-highest-heat-alert

People cooling off near the Colosseum in Rome. Authorities have warned people to avoid direct sunlight during the hottest hours, to stay indoors where possible and drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day. Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters

Move comes as fourth heatwave of summer intensifies, edging temperatures in some areas close to 40C

Italy is to place all of its 27 major cities, from Trieste in the north to Palermo in the south, under the highest heat alert as the fourth heatwave to hit the country this summer intensifies.

A red alert means there is a higher chance of an emergency owing to the health risk posed by prolonged extreme temperatures to the entire population.

Twenty-five cities were on red alert on Wednesday, with two more to be added on Thursday, the health ministry said. It is the first time this year that all 27 cities monitored by the health ministry’s heat surveillance system have been placed on maximum alert.

…

As temperatures in some areas of Italy have edged up towards 40C in recent days, authorities have warned people to avoid direct sunlight between 11am and 6pm, to stay indoors where possible and drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day. Other guidelines include avoiding fizzy drinks, coffee, alcohol and heavy meals, wearing light clothes and never leaving children or animals in cars.

The extreme heat, which scientists say is driven by the human-caused climate crisis, is not forecast to let up for at least a week. Europe has warmed about twice as fast as the global average.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/05/italy-heatwave-major-cities-highest-heat-alert

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Continue ReadingItaly to place all 27 of its major cities on highest heat alert

El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/05/el-nino-could-push-50m-people-acute-hunger-next-year

A maize crop affected by lack of rain in Zimbabwe. ‘The biggest food security impact, in southern Africa, will be during the 2027 to 2028 lean season,’ one expert said. Photograph: Aaron Ufumeli/EPA

UN forecasters warn of worsening conditions in 45 countries currently experiencing severe food insecurity

About 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger before the end of next year by the rapidly developing El Niño weather system, according to forecasting.

This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of people already facing dangerous levels of hunger, owing to years of drought in parts of Africa and pressure on food prices from the war in Iran.

Even if the forecast El Niño is less strong than some models predict, it will tip many countries over the edge, adding more than a fifth to the 225 million people in 45 countries currently in acute food insecurity, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday.

Central and South America, the Caribbean and southern Africa are likely to be worst affected, according to the analysis. In south and south-east Asia there is likely to be less rainfall than usual, which would cause serious problems for agriculture and farmers.

This year’s El Niño – a weather system that develops every few years in the Pacific Ocean and brings changes to rainfall patterns around the world – is shaping up to be the strongest in at least 70 years. Some are calling it a “super El Niño”, though this term is not officially recognised.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/05/el-nino-could-push-50m-people-acute-hunger-next-year

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

Continue ReadingEl Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year