Friday Politics Roundup | UN climate report; averted rail strike; NPR’s “quiet quitting” fail; CB West HS orders teachers to be complicit with anti-trans agenda; Republicans for Shapiro; Mars rover

This year’s United Nations climate report states pretty plainly that we are heading into “uncharted territory of destruction” as the world moves in the wrong direction on climate action. The report comes out as ⅓ of Pakistan is under flood water causing upwards of 1500 deaths thus far. Fires rage in Europe and the U.S. West Coast. Droughts deepen across the globe.. Near famine conditions across parts of Africa. As Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of the Climate Action Network told the Guardian, “The terrifying picture painted by the United in Science report is already a lived reality for millions of people facing recurring climate disasters. The science is clear, yet the addiction to fossil fuels by greedy corporations and rich countries is resulting in losses and damages for communities who have done the least to cause the current climate crisis.”

A massive railroad strike was temporarily averted as union negotiators reached a tentative agreement on a contract. But don’t get too comfy. The agreement still needs to be ratified by workers - and it’s not a shoo-in 

Quiet quitting is all the rage. A recent NPR story on the trend had me enraged. How you doin’? 

The founder of the outdoors company Patagonia transferred ownership of the $3 billion company to the nonprofit organization The Holdfast Collective which is devoted to combating climate change. The company’s website now reads: “Earth is now our only shareholder.” 

Central Bucks West High School administrators tell teachers not to use a student’s preferred name or pronoun if it does not match the information in the school’s database unless they have permission of the student’s parents. The school’s new “Gender Identification Procedure” is putting Central Bucks in legal jeopardy once again and teachers are speaking openly about defying the order. 

Bucks County Republicans reluctantly removed January 6 insurrectionist Down Bancroft from her Doylestown committee seat. In now an infamous video Bancroft posted from the riot, she said “We broke into the Capitol. … We got inside, we did our part. ... We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain but we didn’t find her.” 

A group of former Republican lawmakers and officials under the banner of “Republicans for Shapiro,” held a fundraiser for Josh Shapiro in Bucks County at the home of former Republican U.S. congressman James Greenwood. But don’t hold your breath for a change of course for the Bucks County Republican party. A Bucks County Republican Committee statement about the group called it “disappointing.” The statement continued saying that "While the list may contain former elected officials who once ran as Republicans, these men and women do not represent the values of the Republican Party, especially here in Bucks County." 

NASA Perseverance rover turns up the highest concentration of organic matter on Mars in an ancient river delta in the Jezero crater. Scientists say that while organic matter by itself does not prove that Mars could have sustained life at one point in its history, we are one step closer to an answer. The rock samples drilled by Perseverance will be returned to Earth as part of two missions in 2027 and 2028. 

Giant fireball streaked across the skies of Northern England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland Wednesday night. No, it was not an angel blessing the coronation of King Charles III. Nor was it more of Elon Musk’s space junk. Scientists now confirm that it was a large meteor that may have broken off a larger asteroid.