PR Firms Throw Weight Behind Fossil Misinformation: Expert: Big Oil is spending more money now than ever before on elaborate,
deceptive public relations strategies to thwart climate policy, a PR
expert told a United States congressional hearing, as freshly released
internal emails revealed how fossil executives watered down the language
of their climate commitments, mocked activists, and derided Americans
in general.

“The U.S. oil and gas sector has always pushed for
policies that allow for new fossil fuel expansion, and against policies
that would reduce demand,” expert witness Christine Arena, former vice
president at Edelman,
told a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee hearing, held September
14 to investigate how PR firms help spread climate disinformation.

“But
what has changed recently is the intensity of the industry’s pursuits,
and the vast resources it deploys through public relations and lobbying
efforts meant to crush potential regulatory obstacles in its path.”

None of the PR firms invited to the hearing showed up, reports
DeSmog Blog, but Arena—who now researches and exposes fossil industry
obfuscation—offered some insight into their activities, which she said
have expanded beyond traditional marketing practices.

Extremist candidates running for municipal councils across BC, officials warn – Northern Beat: The most debated issues at last week’s annual conference of B.C.
municipalities may have been health care, housing and inner-city street
disorder, but in private conversations, off the record, mayors and
councillors shared story-after-story about another troubling trend –
municipal candidates with extremist platforms running in the upcoming
civic elections.

“The democratic process is something I believe is so sacred and
should not have any interference at all,” said Municipal Affairs
Minister Nathan Cullen. “I’m hearing from people that I know and trust
from across the political spectrum, saying there’s something going on,
and it’s organized, and it’s funded. And it’s got incredibly bad
intent.”

“What we’re starting to see across B.C. is a bunch of groups that
really just want to join hate, and want to disrupt the system,” said
Clearwater mayor Merlin Blackwell. “We need to be strong, no matter how
hard it gets, and just keep pushing forward to keep our communities
well-served, to keep the trust of our citizens.”

Grocery prices in Canada continue meteoric ascent, rising at fastest pace since 1981: While overall inflation moderated in August, the cost of food
purchased from stores was up a staggering 10.8 per cent compared with a
year ago.

That’s the fastest clip recorded by Statistics Canada since 1981.

“Relatively low cost” plan would cool the Earth’s poles by 2 °C: To state the obvious, no scientist wants to fill the air with
sulfur, drench the last remaining polar bears and penguins in acid rain,
or give carbon emitters any excuses not to clean up their act. But
faced with our current trajectory, on which summer sea ice in the Arctic
will more or less disappear by 2050 or earlier, humanity finds itself
between a rock and a hard place. All options need to be on the table,
evaluated, and to some extent ready to go early enough to make a
difference.

So research into SAI is progressing quickly, and
concentrating it at the poles – an approach referred to as subpolar
deployment – may deliver better returns for significantly less money and
acid rain than a global model. Prior research has indicated that spring
and early summer is likely the most effective season to do it, and that
only doing this at one pole could have asymmetrical effects on global
weather, so it’s probably prudent to target both, with a fleet of planes
that travels with the seasons.