Follow and stream @GreenNewsReport!…



(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: In wake of massive Fort McMurray wildfire, Canada’s insurance industry calls for national strategy to prepare for climate change losses; Pakistan digs mass graves in advance of heat wave; India breaks national temperature record; Portugal breaks world renewable energy record; Exxon Mobil developed and squashed patents for electric cars; PLUS: Donald Trump denies climate change, but not at his own golf course… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 5/24/2016

‘Green News Report’ – May 24, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – May 24, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

30s 30s

0:00 0:00

Download Episode Link to this page Embed on your site! Subscribe RSS/Podcast

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Exxon Investors Seek Assurance as Climate Shifts, Along With Attitudes; It’s possible to charge electrical devices without wires. Soon it may even be practical; Science Education: Portland Does the Right Thing. The Right Freaks Out; Wildfire contaminants could sully Fort McMurray water supply; The Glaciers Will Melt, The Sea Will Rise Up; People may be breathing in microplastics, health expert warns; Al Gore: Donald Trump’s position on climate change ‘should concern everyone’… PLUS: Fate Of Poland’s Primeval Forest In Balance As Poland Plans Logging… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Canada’s insurance industry calls for national strategy to prepare for climate impacts:
• VIDEO: What Fort McMurray’s fire teaches us about preparing for The Big One (CBC)
• Climate changes mean Canada to spend more on disasters: insurers (Reuters):
  Canada will have to set aside more money to deal with natural disasters like wildfires, storms and floods as climate change starts to bite, the head of the country’s property insurance industry group said on Wednesday.
• Climate change means Canada will be spending more on disasters: insurers (Financial Post)
• Cities should stop building in disaster-prone areas, says insurance bureau head (Canadian Press)
• Donald Trump denies climate change science, but not at his own golf course:
• Trump acknowledges climate change – at his golf course (Politco):
  The billionaire, who called global warming a hoax, warns of its dire effects in his company’s application to build a sea wall…A permit application for the wall, filed by Trump International Golf Links Ireland and reviewed by POLITICO, explicitly cites global warming and its consequences – increased erosion due to rising sea levels and extreme weather this century – as a chief justification for building the structure.
• Donald Trump Wants To Build Another Wall But Never Talks About It. Here’s Why. (Climate Progress)
• Exxon Mobil held patents, squashed research on electric car technology:
• Oil company records from 1960s reveal patents to reduce CO2 emissions in cars: ExxonMobil and others pursued research into technologies, yet blocked government efforts to fight climate change for more than 50 years (Guardian UK):
  Ron Dunlop, president of Sun Oil and API chairman, told a joint hearing of the commerce committee in 1967 that government funding of research into electric cars would be misplaced – because the oil companies were so advanced in their research of cleaner cars. “We in the petroleum industry are convinced that by the time a practical electric car can be mass produced and marketed, it will not enjoy any meaningful advantage from an air pollution standpoint,” he told Congress. “Emissions from internal-combustion engines will have long since been controlled.”
• Smoke and Fumes: How the world’s most powerful industry used science, communications and consumer psychology to shape public debate over climate change (Center for International Environmental Law)
• India breaks national temperature record, while Pakistan prepares for heat wave deaths:
• India records its hottest temperature ever: 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit (Mashable):
  India is known for its stifling heat during the months of April and May, when the subcontinent heats up ahead of the summer monsoon. But the temperatures reached this year have been downright dangerous, and are thought to be a contributor to hundreds, if not thousands, of premature deaths.
• VIDEO: India’s roads melt as record-breaking heat wave continues (The Independent UK):
  “There are usually thunderstorms this time of year, but these rains have not been occurring,” said BP Yadav, head of the national weather forecasting centre of the India Meteorological Department.
• VIDEO: Pakistan digs mass graves as heat wave looms (Reuters)
• Deadly Heat Wave Creates Havoc Across South Asia (EcoWatch)
• India inaugurates world’s largest rooftop solar plant:
• At 11.5 MW, India has just inaugurated the world’s single largest rooftop solar system (PV Magazine):
  the chief portion of the installation sits as one single array across 42 acres of rooftop on the main campus. At 11.5 MW, it is larger than the 6.4 MW solar installation at the Mandalay Bay Resort Convention Center in Las Vegas, U.S.
• India inaugurates one of the world’s biggest solar rooftop power plants (Mashable)
• Portugal breaks world renewable energy record:
• Portugal runs for four days straight on renewable energy alone (Guardian UK):
  Zero emission milestone reached as country is powered by just wind, solar and hydro-generated electricity for 107 hours
• This Country Just Set A Major Renewable Energy Record (Climate Progress):
  [R]recent years have seen a shift in Portugal, and while coal and natural gas have traditionally served to power the nation, there has been a concerted effort to move to renewable sources of power.
• Salt Water Brewery invents edible six-pack ring to save marine life:
• VIDEO: Edible six-pack rings are a brilliant answer to plastic pollution (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  [I]t’s made from spent grain, the by-product of the beer itself, that would otherwise get tossed out….While edible six-pack ring isn’t exactly health food for turtles, at least it won’t kill them. “It’s kind of like having a Sour Patch Kid,” brewery founder Chris Gove told Upworthy. “You’d rather have your kid eat a Sour Patch Kid than a Lego. That’s kind of how I see it.”
• Florida brewery unveils edible six-pack rings in hopes of saving marine life (w/video) (Tampa Bay Times)

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

• Exxon Investors Seek Assurance as Climate Shifts, Along With Attitudes (NY Times):
  Such resolutions have been floated before, and they typically do not pass. But there is a growing chorus of investors, many of them large institutional shareholders, who say they are worried that Exxon Mobil, the largest publicly traded energy company in the world, is not adequately preparing for tighter times if countries start acting on the pledges they made last December as part of the Paris climate change accord.
• It’s possible to charge electrical devices without wires. Soon it may even be practical. (Vox):
  What if wireless chargers were built into tables, counters, desks, roads, and parking spots, continually recharging the electronic devices around them? What if electric power became ambient?
• Science Education: Portland Does the Right Thing. The Right Freaks Out (Climate Crocks):
  I imagine, and hope, that many school libraries also ignore books that deny the holocaust, or assert that Dinosaurs could fit on the Ark because Noah just brought babies.
• Wildfire contaminants could sully Fort McMurray water supply (CBC):
  River water will be difficult to treat in the coming weeks and months.
• The Glaciers Will Melt, The Sea Will Rise Up (Science Blogs) [emphasis added]:
  We are probably going to be stupid about sea level rise…”This paper presents solid evidence that there has been rapid retreat here in the past, in fact, throughout the history of the ice sheet,” Greenbaum says. “And because of that, we can say it’s likely to happen again in the future, and there will be substantial sea level implications if it happens again.”
• People may be breathing in microplastics, health expert warns (Guardian UK):
  Environmental health professor says microparticles of plastic, known to damage marine life, could be entering the air
• VIDEO: Al Gore: Donald Trump’s position on climate change ‘should concern everyone’ (NBC Today Show):
  Ten years after the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore is concerned that a potential Donald Trump presidency could roll back progress in the fight against climate change.
• Fate Of Primeval Forest In Balance As Poland Plans Logging (AP):
  It is the last remaining relic of an ancient forest that stretched for millennia across the lowlands of Europe and Russia, a shadowy, mossy woodland where bison and lynx roam beneath towering oak trees up to 600 years old.
• Want to fight climate change? Here are the 7 critical life changes you should make (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  So, given the imperfections of this world, what is a lone wolf such as yourself to do? Here are some conclusions gleaned from this study: 1. Buy the most fuel-efficient car you can afford, then drive it as little as possible….

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

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).