• Hill Heat
  • Posts
  • Bored Senate Democrats approve a bill that would cause mass suffering and death for Americans

Bored Senate Democrats approve a bill that would cause mass suffering and death for Americans

Climate hawks for circadian disruption

Author

Brad Johnson
March 16, 2022

PRESENTED BY DR. JOE OUTLAW

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is addressing Congress this morning. Our fossil-fueled politicians and press corps are enthusiastic about making World War III more likely, but not so much about strengthening Ukraine’s diplomatic position or, god forbid, turning off the global lust for fossil fuels that prop up dictators like Putin, as Ukrainian scientists and activists have begged.

The omnibus spending bill Congress just passed for the year includes only $1 billion in international climate aid, which, as Somini Sengupta notes, is “less than half of what the White House had requested and far short of the $11.4 billion that President Biden promised to deliver each year by 2024.”

But the bill did include $14 billion for guns for Ukraine, so. Meanwhile, it’s 104°F in Mumbai.

Not to worry, though, the Senate’s top climate champions Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—working with climate denier Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)—have launched into action, getting a major bill to transform the U.S. economy and the health of its citizens through the Senate by unanimous consent: the Sunshine Protection Act.

Vinny Thomas explains:

In all seriousness, the absurdly named bill does not protect us from vampires, whoo girls, or solar geoengineering schemes, but instead would make Daylight Saving Time permanent. As previously discussed, the medical academy—led by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine—is clear that Daylight Saving Time is bad for health, whether it is temporary or permanent. Because Daylight Saving Time is misaligned, often grossly, with the solar day, your body’s circadian rhythms are permanently dirsupted. This consensus, like the conclusions of other scientists in matters of public health, is based on a strong body of diverse research, which include troubling findings like this:

I sincerely hope that politicians who have built a reputation on listening to the warnings of scientists will do so now and this dreadful bill doesn’t become law.

Dr. Joe Outlaw, along with several other scientists with less awesome names, are testifying this morning on the Farm Bill and climate change. We’ll be watching to see if committee chair Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) demands the Department of Agriculture build the Keystone XL pipeline.

When I celebrated the 80th birthday of Carole King last month, I didn’t expect that she would soon be testifying before Congress. She will be speaking at Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) hearing on smarter wildfire management, along with Randy Moore, the chief of the U.S. Forest Service, tribal ecologist Ali Meders-Knight, and wildfire scientists Michael Gollner and Dominick DellaSala.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) will markup legislation that mandates tribal consultation on projects like fossil-fuel pipelines, while the House Science Committee is looking at advanced bioenergy research.

In the morning, members of Congress will promote their desired water projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In the afternoon the Senate environment committee will review the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund and Senate armed services is looking at toxic burn pits, which like Daylight Saving Time, are carcinogenic.

Hearings on the Hill:

Climate Action Today:

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. DMs are open—@climatebrad

Subscribe to Hill Heat

Climate science, policy, politics, and action

Join the conversation

or to participate.