Per Capita CO2 Emissions In Europe

Another graph from Theda Skocpol's analysis of why the 2009 Cap and Trade bill failed, this one looking at increasing political polarization between the Democrats and the GOP from the 1970s on.

*The LCV (League of Conservation Voters) average reflects LCV scores given to lawmwakers, which are based on their votes on important environmental legislation. The higher the score the more "pro-environment" the lawmaker.

People of color support environmental protection at higher rates than whites. Yet, while people of color make up 36% of the US population, and 29% of the science and engineering workforce, they are substantially underrepresented on the staff of major environmental government agencies, NGOs, and the foundations that fund them. For the environmental movement to be effective in the future, it will need to become more diverse.

October 2017 was the warmest October on record for all 6 New England states.

A somewhat pessimistic view of climate diplomacy by Eduardo Porter in the New York Times: In the 30 years since the first international meeting on climate change in 1988 in Toronto, temperatures continue to rise and greenhouse gas emissions are greater than ever. 

Original article

The significance of the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature study is that it was performed by prominent climate change skeptic Richard Muller. Prior to this study, Dr. Muller was a leading voice of climate change skepticism, casting doubt on both the idea that the earth is warming, and that humans are the cause. The land surface temperature trend (previous graph) led Muller to conclude that the earth is warming. 

Muller then studied issues raised by skeptics, such as possible biases from urban heating, data selection, poor station quality, and data adjustment. He concluded that these do not unduly bias the results. He further concluded that many of the changes in land-surface temperature can be explained by a combination of volcanoes and a proxy for human greenhouse gas emissions. Solar variation does not seem to impact the temperature trend.  Muller demonstrated that the upward temperature trend is likely to be an indication of anthropogenic changes, namely carbon dioxide emissions.

These results led Muller to announce in a NY Times Op-Ed that his research shows the earth is warming and that "humans are almost entirely the cause", referring to himself as a converted climate change skeptic.

Based on a survey of 144 climate change economists performed by the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law, response to: "Placing a “price on carbon” through a tax or cap‐and‐trade system will increase incentives for energy efficiency and the development of lower carbon energy production."

Other interesting results:

84% agreed or strongly agreed that “the environmental effects of greenhouse gas emissions... create significant risks to important sectors of the United States and global economies.”

91.6% preferred or strongly preferred “market‐based mechanisms, such as a carbon tax or cap‐and‐trade system” over command‐and‐control regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Direct and indirect employment, as of 2013-2014, in the global renewable energy industry.

Stanford scholar Mark Z. Jacobson lays out how the US could get to 100% renewable energy by 2050. David Roberts describes his ambitious blueprint and the challenges it would face here.

NASA map shows temperature anomalies from March 13-19, 2012 as compared to the same eight day period during the past 12 years. Red = warmer than normal. Blue = cooler than normal. Based on data captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite.

The larger the share of overall energy jobs that are solar and wind jobs, the more likely a state was to support the Democratic candidate in 2016. This has an important lesson for Trump as his administration crafts energy policy.

Per Axios: 

...for the most part, states that Trump narrowly won have a higher percentage of energy jobs that are renewable-energy jobs than safe Republican states.

Thus, an energy policy that shuns renewables in favor or jobs in fossil fuels could bolster his support in solid red states, while jeopardizing his support in the swing states he narrowly won to give him the presidency. Trump would be wise to continue Obama’s investment in renewables.