CLIMATE TODAY: A lot going on. Three iconic lakes at their lowest levels EVER. The West gearing up for round 2 of the HeatDome games. The biggest wildfires in 13 states doubling. The Pentagon (maybe) stops tracking wildfires. And the salmon CA wipeout. A thread. /1 Lake Powell’s capacity fell to just 33% yesterday – in large part due to climate change driving a vicious drought. It’s the lowest level on record for the reservoir – the country’s second largest, which provides water to more than 40 million people. /2

The case for Keisha Lance Bottoms as Joe Biden's running mate is an incredibly strong one. She is arguably his best and most likely choice as a running mate. There are huge, blinking political roadmap signs pointing in her direction.

usnews.com/news/elections… "While her veepstakes candidacy has largely flown under the radar, (she) has been one of Biden's top surrogates for months and months – even when his candidacy seemed hopeless earlier this year – and she is arguably his best and most likely choice as a running mate."

More than 2 million people and counting worldwide now have the coronavirus. The U.S. is officially in a recession. More than 5 million Americans filed for unemployment in the last week alone. But….wait! LOOK OVER THERE. A thread I never thought I'd need to create. /1 As we are grappling with a global pandemic, the Trump administration, fossil fuel allies in Congress, and big business special interests are hard at work – ducking, undoing, and straight-up ignoring a whole lot of really good environmental laws. /2

This has been done elsewhere, but repetition is the mother of all learning. As President Trump tries to rewrite his history of dangerous delays on the pandemic - setting a baseline that 200K deaths is actually a victory - it's worth remembering. A thread (borrowed from others). In the wake of the Ebola outbreak, the Obama-Biden administration created a permanent pandemic monitoring and command group inside the National Security Council. This command structure was dismantled by the Trump White House in 2018.

foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/cor…

So many folks (including journalists and TV news debate moderators) are falling deeply into the “personal sacrifice” trap laid out by industry and ideological groups opposed to any sort of climate action that it’s time for a reality check. Thread. /1 The 7-hour CNN climate town hall shows, beyond any doubt, it’s now impossible to deny that climate change has captured a central role in the Dem presidential primary in 2020. That's a major shift in the politics of this issue & an opportunity for the climate movement. /2