Study: Planet will warm 7 degrees by century’s end

WASHINGTON — Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by the end of this century.

A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be under water without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.

But the administration did not offer this dire forecast, premised on the idea that the world will fail to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.

The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was written to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says, that policy would add just a very small drop to a very big, hot bucket.

Consulate evacuated

WASHINGTON — The State Department announced it had ordered the evacuation of the American consulate in Basra, Iraq, because of attacks in recent weeks by militias supported by the Iranian government.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a written statement that the consulate had come under “repeated incidents of indirect fire from elements of those militias.”

“Iran should understand that the United States will respond promptly and appropriately to any such attacks,” Mr. Pompeo said in the statement.

He blamed the security threat specifically on Iran, its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force and militias under the control of Qassem Suleimani, the powerful commander of the Quds Force.

Skirting sanctions

Iran plans to get around U.S. sanctions on its oil sales by selling its petroleum and conduct international trade in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, the Iranian diplomat who negotiated the nuclear deal said.

“The actual mechanism would be to avoid dollars,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters at a round table at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York, saying countries are starting to make agreements to use their own currencies in bilateral trade.

“You can use your own currency,” he explained. “Sell stuff in your own currency, buy stuff in the other country’s currency, and at the end of a specific period, balance it out in a non-dollar currency. It’s quite possible. And may even be profitable.”

The United States is poised to impose sanctions in early November targeting Iran’s oil sector.