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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Senator Bernie Sanders, climate hawk, enters the 2016 Presidential race; Thanks to fossil fuels, California still has the nation’s dirtiest air; Study finds most extremely hot days caused by global warming; PLUS: Pope Francis wants to protect God’s Creation, and the rightwing, fossil fuel-funded Heartland Institute wants him to knock it off… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
4/30/2015
‘Green News Report’ – April 30, 2015 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – April 30, 2015 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Break-up of the century: U.S. emissions and economic growth are really, finally separating; New Survey Shows TV Weathercasters Increasingly Accept Climate Change (but not Fox News); Duke Energy to hand out bottled water in North Carolina after wells polluted; Bees Love Nicotine, Even Though It’s Killing Them; Forest fire threatens Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear zone… PLUS: Exposure to widespread diabetes drug feminizes male fish… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Sen. Bernie Sanders Is Running for President:
- VIDEO: Senator Bernie Sanders News Conference (C-SPAN):
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held a news conference to talk about his agenda for the country and his decision to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
- Bernie Sanders: ‘I am running in this election to win’ (USA Today)
- 5 Things You Should Know About Bernie Sanders (NPR):
Sanders is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in U.S. history and a self-described “Democratic Socialist.” The 73-year-old is considered a long shot but if elected, he would be the oldest person and first Jewish person to serve as commander-in-chief.
- Bernie Sanders is running for president (CNN)
- Bernie Sanders isn’t going to be president. That’s not the point. (Chris Cillizza, Washington Post)
- Most Extremely Hot Days Caused By Global Warming:
- New Study: Climate Change Responsible for 3 out of 4 Heat Waves (Climate Crocks):
[T]he message for policymakers is “striking”, says Prof Peter Stott, who leads the Met Office’s climate attribution team but who wasn’t involved in the study.
- 75 percent of very hot days caused by human effects, study says (San Jose Mercury News):
If you find yourself sweating out a day that is monstrously hot, chances are you can blame humanity. A new report links 3 out of 4 such days to man’s effects on climate.
- The Most Polluted Cities Are All in California:
- The State of the Air 2015 (American Lung Association):
For 16 years, the American Lung Association has analyzed data from official air quality monitors to compile the State of the Air report. The more you learn about the air you breathe, the more you can protect your health and take steps to make our air cleaner and healthier.
- State Of The Air 2015: The Top 10 Cleanest And Most Polluted U.S. Cities (Yahoo News)
- Four in 10 Americans Are Breathing Unhealthy, Polluted Air. Are you? (AP)
- VIDEO; State Of The Air Report: Southern California Tops List Of Most Polluted Air In The Country (CBS Los Angeles)
- Heartland Tell Pope Francis to Knock It Off:
- The inadvertent hilarity of the Heartland Institute vs. Pope Francis (Ars Technica):
Each e-mail from their press office offers a mix of comedy and tragedy.
- Vatican brings dose of morality to climate debate (AP)
- Vatican official calls for moral awakening on global warming (Guardian UK)
- Heartland Institute takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level (Guardian UK)
- Mainstream Media Advance Climate Science Deniers’ Misinformation Campaign Against The Pope (Media Matters):
Reports by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters and NPR uncritically relayed climate science deniers’ criticism of the Vatican’s climate change summit and Pope Francis’ forthcoming encyclical on climate change. By contrast, other media coverage — including a different New York Times article — noted that the organization behind these efforts has received funding from fossil fuel interests and their claim that humans are not responsible for global warming is firmly rejected by the vast majority of climate scientists.
The State of the Air 2015 report shows that California’s clean air laws and initiatives are working,” said Olivia Gertz, President and CEO of the American Lung Association. “However, over 70 percent of Californians — 28 million residents — live in counties plagued with unhealthy air during certain parts of the year.
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Break-up of the century: U.S. emissions and economic growth are really, finally separating (Grist):
[A]s the U.S. embraces energy efficiency and renewables, those things aren’t dancing to quite the same beat anymore. In fact, they’re “decoupling,” and could be heading toward a permanent divorce.
- VIDEO: New Survey Shows TV Weathercasters Increasingly Accept Climate Change
But Fox News’ Forecast Is Still Misleading With A Chance Of Denial (Media Matters):Now, most TV forecasters say they have read findings from the National Climate Assessment, a report by the U.S. government to inform Americans about the climate change impacts already occurring all across the country. - Duke Energy to hand out bottled water in North Carolina after wells polluted (Guardian UK):
“A lot of residents are really concerned because some of them have been drinking from these supplies for decades,” said Sam Perkins, who works with North Carolina nonprofit Catawba Riverkeeper and who has been visiting residents affected by the contamination over the last week.
- Bees Love Nicotine, Even Though It’s Killing Them (Mother Jones):
If a ubiquitous class of pesticides called neonicotinoids harms bees and other pollinators—as many scientists think they do—why don’t those buzzing insects just avoid pollen and nectar that contains them?
- Duke Researcher Denounces Rush Limbaugh’s “Ridiculous” Distortion Of His Global Warming Study (Media Matters):
[T]he study itself said nothing of the sort. Rather, the study stated that, out of the range of warming projections outlined by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), temperature records suggest that at present time the “middle-of-the-road warming scenario” is more likely than the most severe warming projections. One of the study’s authors, Duke doctoral candidate Patrick Brown, confirmed as much in an email to Media Matters, and called Limbaugh’s assertion “ridiculous”.
- Fossil fuels are the new tobacco when it comes to health risk (Letters, Guardian UK):
As future doctors we call on the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to remove their investments from fossil fuel companies. We share a responsibility to our future patients to address unmitigated climate change — described as “the biggest health threat of the 21st century” — and to advocate for a transition to a healthier, more sustainable economy.
- Forest fire threatens Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear zone (Reuters):
In February, international experts warned that a large amount of dangerous isotopes remained in the forests near Chernobyl, which could be spread by forest fires.
- Electric vehicles, batteries & renewable energy (Business Standard):
Sales of electric vehicles have been rising, even though the absolute numbers are somewhat underwhelming
- Exposure to widespread diabetes drug feminizes male fish. (Environmental Health News):
It is the first study to examine the drug metformin’s impact on fish endocrine systems and suggests that non-hormone pharmaceuticals pervasive in wastewater may cause reproductive and development problems in exposed fish.
- Jerry Brown to revise plan for twin water tunnels in Delta (Sacramento Bee):
The revised plan calls for restoring less than one-third of the 100,000 acres of wetland and wildlife habitat originally planned, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham told the Associated Press on Wednesday. The news agency said the new cost of habitat restoration would amount to about $300 million, a fraction of the $8 billion originally projected. State and federal officials were scheduled to hold a news conference in Oakland on Thursday to discuss the revised plan.
- VIDEO: Obama Finally Gets Angry At Climate Science Deniers And It’s Hilarious (Climate Progress):
In a hilarious admission that he has been too low key to convey the moral outrage justified by humanity’s myopic march toward self-destruction — and by the brazen denial of climate science by many conservatives — Obama brought out “Luther” to express that outrage. And then, in an ingenious twist, Obama became so outraged that he didn’t need Luther and in fact Luther himself couldn’t take the genuinely angry Obama, who says of denial, “What kind of stupid, shortsighted, irresponsible, bull—”
- Rate Of Climate Change To Soar By 2020s, With Arctic Warming 1°F Per Decade (Climate Progress):
New research from a major national lab projects that the rate of climate change, which has risen sharply in recent decades, will soar by the 2020s. This worrisome projection – which has implications for extreme weather, sea level rise, and permafrost melt – is consistent with several recent studies.
- Now’s Your Chance to Help Save the Imperiled Monarch Butterfly-and Get Paid to Do So (Take Part) [emphasis added]:
Another threat, according to Grant, has been well-intentioned individuals who have planted a tropical form of milkweed, which competes with native varieties and is not beneficial to monarchs or other pollinators.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
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.
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.
“Rate Of Climate Change To Soar By 2020s, With Arctic Warming 1°F Per Decade (Climate Progress)”
New York City, then, may face more of the “1-in-850 year event” SLR surges (The Question Is: How Much Acceleration Is Involved In SLR? – 4).
The source of those surges may now be known.