With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 1/22/2015, 3:36pm PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: President Obama's State of the Union focuses on climate change; Republicans' sneaky move to give the Keystone XL pipeline a new name; Yellowstone River pipeline spill spews oil and cancer-causing benzene; PLUS: Yes, Republicans vote climate change is not a hoax --- but there's a catch... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Global nuclear decommissioning costs spiral; Good news: India's tiger population rebounds; What's the best way to drill for oil in a mostly untouched Alaskan tundra? Feds disagree; Organic farmers say pesticide drift contaminates and kills; US research labs lets livestock suffer in quest for profit; NM county's fracking ban struck down; Cutbacks in the Oil Patch... PLUS: VIDEO: “..a Bloodbath”: Efficiency, Renewables and Smart Grid will Kill Old Energy... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

  • VIDEO: “..a Bloodbath”: Efficiency, Renewables and Smart Grid will Kill Old Energy (Climate Crocks):
    Not much doubt that everyone gets that we are transitioning to renewables, and soon. Obviously some spread in how fast they think it will happen.
  • Global nuclear decommissiong costs are underestimated, may spiral (Reuters):
    German utility E.ON's breakup has led to worries that funds set aside for decommissioning reactors will not suffice, but globally the cost of unwinding nuclear is uncertain as estimates range widely.
  • Good news: India's tiger population rebounds, grows 30 per cent in 4 years (NY Times):
    India's tiger population has rebounded, growing more than 30 percent over the last four years to 2,226, according to a new government census released on Tuesday.
  • Federal agencies at odds over drilling plan for Alaska reserve: (E & E News):
    What's the best way to drill for oil in a mostly untouched Alaskan tundra, home to migrating caribou, abundant waterfowl, and Native Alaskan hunting and fishing grounds? It depends on which federal agency you ask.
  • Organic Farmers: Pesticide Drift Kills (Iowa Public Radio):
    Specialty crop farmers were at the [Iowa] capitol today complaining of damage to their produce from pesticide drift.
  • US research labs lets livestock suffer in quest for profit (NY Times):
    At a remote research center on the Nebraska plains, scientists are using surgery and breeding techniques to re-engineer the farm animal to fit the needs of the 21st-century meat industry. The potential benefits are huge: animals that produce more offspring, yield more meat and cost less to raise.
  • US judge strikes down NM county's fracking ban as unconstitutional (E & E News):
    A county's ban on hydraulic fracturing and drilling conflicts with both state and U.S. law, a federal court in New Mexico found this week.
  • Environmentalists reject Obama's call for expanded trade powers: (Huffington Post Green):
    Nearly 50 environmentalist organizations sent a letter Wednesday to every member of Congress, urging them to oppose granting President Barack Obama 'fast-track' authority to pass new free trade deals. The letter, signed by the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and dozens of other groups, comes the morning after Obama pressed for that power in his State of the Union address.
  • Oil Servicers and a Driller Announce Cutbacks (New York Times)
  • Another Climate Denial Myth Scuttled as 2014 Confirmed Planet's Hottest Year Ever Recorded (The BRAD BLOG):
    How fossil-fueled global warming hoaxsters cherry-pick scientific data to con the incurious...
  • The Hottest 'Hottest Year Ever' Ever (Motherboard) [emphasis added]:
    But 2014's Hottest Year Ever is, in fact, extraordinary. It should do more than serve as yet another reminder that human activity is cooking the planet's climate, and that despite this onslaught of hottest-ever years, we've done almost nothing to halt it....There was no El Niño in 2014, which means there was no extra boost in temperatures. This is just the new standard.
  • Rate of environmental degradation puts life on Earth at risk, say scientists (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
    Humans are 'eating away at our own life support systems' at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years, two new research papers say.
    ...
    Of nine worldwide processes that underpin life on Earth, four have exceeded "safe" levels - human-driven climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land system change and the high level of phosphorus and nitrogen flowing into the oceans due to fertiliser use.
  • Ocean Life Faces Mass Extinction, Broad Study Says (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
    "We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event," said Douglas J. McCauley, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara...But there is still time to avert catastrophe, Dr. McCauley and his colleagues also found...."We're lucky in many ways," said Malin L. Pinsky, a marine biologist at Rutgers University and another author of the new report. "The impacts are accelerating, but they're not so bad we can't reverse them."
  • The Saudis, Stones, and the End of the Age of Oil (Climate Crocks) [emphasis added]:
    In 2000, Sheikh Yamani, former oil minister of Saudi Arabia, gave an interview in which he said: "Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil - and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. ... [T]o Saudi Arabia, that end is clearly not so far away that the owner of the largest, most accessible crude resource is willing to continue to subsidize higher prices for other producers at the risk of leaving its own oil untapped one day in the future.


FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

  • Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
  • 4 Scenarios Show What Climate Change Will Do To The Earth, From Pretty Bad To Disaster (Fast CoExist):
    But exactly how bad is still an open question, and a lot depends not only on how we react, but how quickly. The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions--if we do choose to cut them--will have a large bearing on how the world turns out by 2100, the forecasts reveal.
  • How to Solve Global Warming: It's the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
    Restraining global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius will require changing how the world produces and uses energy to power its cities and factories, heats and cools buildings, as well as moves people and goods in airplanes, trains, cars, ships and trucks, according to the IPCC. Changes are required not just in technology, but also in people's behavior.
  • Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
  • NASA Video: Warming over the last 130 years, and into the next 100 years:
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