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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Calls grow in Congress for Dept. of Justice to investigate Exxon Mobil for obscuring evidence of climate change; Political change in Canada may mean beginning of the end for the dirty tar sands; 3 out of 4 Americans now accept climate science; Your sunscreen may be damaging coral reefs; PLUS: Surprise! September 2015 was the hottest September ever recorded… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 10/22/2015

‘Green News Report’ – October 22, 2015  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – October 22, 2015  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Momentum – But Uncertainty – in Final Pre-Paris Climate Talks; Paris Climate Deal Unlikely To Need Senate Approval, Says US Envoy; With Abandoned Gas Wells, States Are Left With The Cleanup Bill; Why Aren’t Presidential Candidates Talking about Food and Agriculture?; U.K., China Poised for Accord on $37.9 Billion Nuclear Plant; Three Key Trends in the EV Market; Interactive Map: U.S. cities we could lose to the sea; $20 Million Prize Aims To Get Contestants To Turn Carbon Pollution To Something Useful; Experts: U.S. Must Do More To Protect Energy Grid From Cyberattack… PLUS: Clean energy creates some jobs and destroys others. Here’s what that tells us about politics… and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• Canada: Conservatives Out, Liberals In:
• AUDIO: ‘A New Day’ for Canada and Other Sea Changes: ‘BradCast’ 10/20/2015 (The BRAD BLOG)
• Trudeau victory may not signal a U-turn in Canada’s climate policy (Guardian UK):
  Those hoping the new PM will be a climate champion willing to fix the damage done by his predecessor Stephen Harper could be in for a reality check.
• What Your New Liberal Majority Government Means for Climate, Environment, Science and Transparency (DeSmog Blog Canada)
• The oil patch may have lost a big opportunity with the Harper era (Globe & Mail)
• Democrats Call for DOJ Investigation of Exxon:
• Bernie Sanders Calls For Federal Investigation Of Exxon (Climate Progress)
• VIDEO: Time to Wake Up: Exxon, RICO, and the Right-Wing Tempest (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI)
• Sanders Calls for Investigation of ‘Potential Corporate Fraud’ by Exxon (InsideClimate News)
• Exxon Sowed Doubt about Climate Science for Decades by Stressing Uncertainty (InsideClimate News):
  Collaborating with the Bush-Cheney White House, Exxon turned ordinary scientific uncertainties into weapons of mass confusion.
• Exxon Responds: When it comes to climate change, read the documents (Exxon Mobil):
  Reading the documents shows that these allegations are based on deliberately cherry-picked statements attributed to various ExxonMobil employees to wrongly suggest definitive conclusions were reached decades ago by company researchers. These statements were taken completely out of context and ignored other readily available statements demonstrating that our researchers recognized the developing nature of climate science at the time which, in fact, mirrored global understanding.
• Petition: Prosecute Exxon For Deliberate Climate Denial (Climate Hawks Vote)
• Democrats Request a DOJ Investigation Into ExxonMobil, Alleging Climate Science Coverup (New Republic)
• Big Tobacco Is Guilty of Conspiracy (LA Times, 8/18/2006)
• Exxon Knew: The Road Not Taken (InsideClimate News)
• Prison for Exxon Execs? Lawmakers Seek Probe of Oil Giant for Hiding Knowledge of Climate Change (Democracy Now!)
• Exxon’s Climate Cover-Up Should Be Investigated By DOJ, Tobacco Prosecutor Says (Climate Progress)
• Poll: 3 Out of 4 Americans Accept Climate Change is Occurring:
• Over 3 out of 4 Americans Now Acknowledge Climate Change Is Occurring–Including the Majority of Republicans (Scientific American):
  Seventy-six percent of Americans now say that climate change is occurring–an increase from 68 percent just one year ago. Further, only 14 percent say it’s not, compared with 22% when we first asked the question in the Spring of 2012.
• 3 out of 4 Believe Climate Change Is Occurring; Views of Key Energy Issues Are Shaped by Partisan Politics (UT Austin Energy Poll) [emphasis added]:
  “Political ideology continues to be the single greatest determinant of Americans’ views on climate change,“ said UT Energy Poll Director Sheril Kirshenbaum.
• Your Sunscreen May Be Damaging Coral Reefs:
• How we are all contributing to the destruction of coral reefs: Sunscreen (Washington Post):
  Not only did the study determine that a tiny amount of sunscreen is all it takes to begin damaging the delicate corals – the equivalent of a drop of water in a half-dozen Olympic-sized swimming pools – it documented three different ways that the ingredient oxybenzone breaks the coral down, robbing it of life-giving nutrients and turning it ghostly white.
• Almost Every Chemical-Based Sunscreen In The U.S. Linked To Coral Destruction (Climate Progress)
• September 2015: Hottest September on Record, Most Cat 4 Cyclones:
• Sweltering September Sets Global Records (Climate Central):
  September 2015 was not only the hottest September on record for the globe, but it was warmer than average by a bigger margin than any of the 1,629 months in the records of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – that’s all the way back to January 1880.
• After record-shattering September, 2015 in commanding lead for Earth’s hottest year on record (Washington Post)
• The Northern Hemisphere Just Set a Cyclone Record (Weather Shift)
• With Record-Breaking September, 2015 Continues Pace as Warmest Year on Record (Weather Channel):
  September was the seventh month this year to go down in the record books as the hottest on record dating to January 1880. February, March, May, June, July and August are the other months this year that were the warmest on record.
• September blew away the margin for Earth’s warmest month on record (mahsable)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• Clean energy creates some jobs and destroys others. Here’s what that tells us about politics. (Vox.com):
  What’s more relevant to the political prospects of a clean energy transition is not net costs and jobs, but who gains and who loses. Which industries lose, and what kind of power will they wield to prevent it? Which win, and how equipped are they to support it?
• Momentum – But Uncertainty – in Final Pre-Paris Climate Talks (CS Monitor):
  “Delegations from nearly 200 countries will meet in Bonn, Germany this week to finalize a draft agreement before the UN Paris climate talks in December.
• With Abandoned Gas Wells, States Are Left With The Cleanup Bill (NPR):
  When energy booms go bust, the public is often left responsible for the cleanup. That’s because while most states and the federal government make companies put up at least some money in advance to pay for any mess they leave behind, it’s often not enough.
• Why Aren’t Presidential Candidates Talking about Food and Agriculture? (Mark Bittman, Union of Concerned Scientists):
  This noose of diet-related diseases hasn’t just appeared around the neck of Americans-it’s the consequence of a broken food system and the remnant of outdated policy choices. Our food system isn’t only broken for eaters. It’s broken for farmers, and it’s broken for workers across the food chain. Exploitation is rampant among food workers, who hold five of the eight worst-paying jobs in the country. Our farmers aren’t encouraged to do much to help. Instead, our policies encourage them to grow unsustainable amounts of unhealthy crops, and to do so at the expense of the long-term health of their land.
• U.K., China Poised for Accord on $37.9 Billion Nuclear Plant (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
  “It is a very, very, very, very expensive piece of kit even in the context of nuclear power, and therefore it’s hard to see that it’s value for money,” Peter Atherton, a utilities analyst at Jefferies in London, said in an interview. “The economics don’t work for the private sector and the state always underpins the economics of nuclear power throughout the world.”
• Happy Fifth Birthday, Modern Electric Cars! Three Key Trends in the EV Market (Union of Concerned Scientists):
  [H]ave we arrived at a tipping point where EVs are inevitable? Probably not; despite major progress, policy support is playing a critical role pushing automakers who are reluctant and helping consumers overcome barriers to EV ownership. Therefore the next 5 years are critical to get us to that tipping point. To see where we might be going, let’s take a look at the state of the electric vehicle (EV) market and how it has grown over the last 5 years.
• Interactive Map: U.S. cities we could lose to the sea: (Climate Central) [emphasis added]:
  Historic carbon emissions have already locked in enough future sea level rise to submerge most of the homes in each of several hundred American towns and cities, according to Climate Central-led research published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The animated timeline on this page maps, year by year, how the total number of locked-in cities could climb to more than 1,500, if pollution continues unchecked through the end of the century. It also lays out an alternative timeline based on extreme carbon cuts, leading to fewer than 700 locked-in cities. You can watch threats unfold nationwide or for individual states, and track the potential fate of each municipality.div>
• $20 Million Prize Aims To Get Contestants To Turn Carbon Pollution To Something Useful (Climate Progress):
  XPrize Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing about breakthroughs that benefit humanity, looked at the problem of carbon solution and saw an opportunity. “Some of the biggest problems out there often require new ideas, but they also require the incentive to act,” Paul Bunje, principal and senior scientist for energy and environment at XPrize, told ThinkProgress.
• Experts: U.S. Must Do More To Protect Energy Grid From Cyberattacks (McClatchy):
  The U.S. needs to be more aggressive in putting critical energy infrastructure out of reach of cyberattacks, a top official of the government’s Idaho National Laboratory warned lawmakers.
• Study Finds the Warmer It Gets, the More World Economy Hurts (AP):
  With each upward degree, global warming will singe the economies of three-quarters of the world’s nations and widen the north-south gap between rich and poor countries, according to a new economic and science study.
• Paris Climate Deal Unlikely To Need Senate Approval, Says US Envoy (Climate Home):
  Todd Stern tells Capitol Hill committee new UN climate deal will be crafted under existing treaties, bypassing requirements for lawmaker approval/
• Major Medical Groups Warning Of Toxic Chemical Risks To Unborn Babies (Huffington Post):
  Doctors urged to address environmental exposures, especially with expectant parents.
• Every country is now pledging to tackle CO2 emissions. It’s still not enough. (Vox.com):
  In other words, if the world wants to stay below 2°C of global warming – which has long been considered the danger zone for climate change – these pledges are only a first step. Countries will have to do a whole lot more than they’re currently promising. And the IEA has a few ideas for what “do a whole lot more” might entail.
  …
  1. Increase energy efficiency in the industry, buildings, and transport sectors.
  2. Progressively reduce the use of the least efficient coal-fired power plants and banning their construction.
  3. Increase investment in renewable energy technologies in the power sector from $270 billion in 2014 to $400 billion in 2030.
  4. Gradually phase out fossil fuel subsidies to end-users by 2030.
  5. Reduce methane emissions in oil and gas production.
• 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.