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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: In Rio Olympics’ opening ceremony, Brazil goes big on global warming and the environment; U.S. government to use global warming ‘litmus test’ for all new projects; Melting Arctic ice uncovering anthrax and toxic waste; Happy Earth Overshoot Day; PLUS: Florida gets approval to release GMO mosquitoes… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 8/9/2016

‘Green News Report’ – August 9, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – August 9, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): What Happens to the U.S. Midwest When the Water’s Gone?; Researchers find unsafe levels of industrial chemicals in drinking water of 6 million Americans; Climate Changes at Rio Olympics is Risky For The Health and Performance of Athletes; Chevron Wins Big in $9.5 Billion Oil Pollution Case. But It’s Not Over; A Year After Toxic River Spill, No Clear Plan To Clean Up Western Mines; Two former Republican EPA administrators throw support to Clinton… PLUS: Customers Could Pay $2.5 Billion for Nuclear Plants That Never Get Built… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• VIDEO: John Oliver Destroys Olympics Opening Ceremony, NBC Coverage (Mediaite)
• FDA approves GMO mosquito field trial in Florida:
• Florida cleared to release genetically modified mosquitoes in Zika fight (Guardian UK):
  US Food and Drug Administration finds ‘no significant’ environmental impact of experimental release of insects after 15 Zika infections were reported in Miami
• VIDEO: FDA Approves GMO Mosquito Test to Fight Zika (ABC News)
• CDC Director: Zika travel advisory to Florida could last a year (Omaha Herald)
• Why the Zika travel warning in Florida is so narrow. And what it means for rest of U.S. (Washington Post)
• Climate Change And Longer Mosquito Seasons Are Contributing To The Spread Of Zika (Climate Progress)
• Happy ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ – it literally comes earlier every year:
• Earth Overshoot Day 2016
• As of today, we have used up all the Earth’s resources for 2016 (Quartz):
  Earth Overshoot Day isn’t one of those fun holidays, like International Cat Day or Squirrel Appreciation Day. Instead, it’s a depressing reminder that we humans are living well beyond our means. Today (Aug. 8) marks the point when humanity as a whole has used up the resources needed to live sustainably for a year.
• VIDEO: Earth Overshoot Day Arrives Earlier Than Ever (National Geographic)
• VIDEO: Earth Overshoot Day keeps moving up: What’s the pace of change? (CS Monitor)
• U.S. government to use global warming ‘litmus test’ for all new project approvals:
• Fact Sheet: White House Council on Environmental Quality Releases Final Guidance on Considering Climate Change in Environmental Reviews (White House)
• Government Agencies Must Consider The Climate, White House Says (Climate Progress):
  The White House on Tuesday released new guidance that directs federal agencies to consider climate change during environmental reviews…does not create a new rule or regulation for agencies…Under the guidance, agencies are directed to consider the both the project’s impact on climate change (i.e., greenhouse gas emissions caused, directly or indirectly, by the project) as well as the effects of climate change (i.e., projected sea-level rise for a coastal project).
• White House Tells Agencies to Consider Climate Change Effects of Projects (Scientific American)
• Melting Arctic exposes bizarre new threats:
• For Climate Scientists, the Siberian Anthrax Outbreak Is a Sign of What’s to Come (Pacific Standard Magazine):
  We don’t yet know what else lies buried within the Earth’s permafrost – which is scary, because warming in the Arctic is accelerating.
• “Zombie” Anthrax Goes on a Killing Spree in Siberia–How? (Scientific American):
  An outbreak of anthrax…in Siberia has been linked to 75-year-old anthrax spores released by melting permafrost. It’s an event of the sort many scientists have warned about: Warming temperatures reviving dormant diseases, perhaps even pathogens long-thought extinct.
• Melting Greenland ice sheet will soon unearth toxic waste from long-forgotten Cold War-era military base (Mashable):
  In 1967, the U.S. decommissioned a military base that had been constructed underneath the Greenland Ice Sheet. In doing so, the military removed a portable nuclear reactor that had helped power the 200-person base, but left the rest of the waste there, from gasoline to PCBs and nuclear coolant water.
• Melting ice sheet could release frozen Cold War-era waste (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder):
  But climate change has warmed the Arctic more than any other region on Earth, and a new study finds the portion of the ice sheet covering Camp Century could start to melt by the end of the century. If the ice melts, the camps infrastructure, as well as any remaining biological, chemical and radioactive waste, could re-enter the environment and potentially disrupt nearby ecosystems, according to the studys authors.
• Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony goes big on global warming, environment:
• Olympics Ceremony Shines Spotlight on Climate Change (Scientific American):
  More than 3 billion viewers are given a stark warning about rising temperatures and seas.
• From Rio’s hillside slums, Olympic Games viewed as missed opportunity (CS Monitor):
  Residents of the impoverished favelas had hoped for plans to address Rio’s inequality, but now some are decrying the ‘exclusion Games.’
• Rio Olympics: five missed opportunities in the green opening ceremony (Climate Home)
• Global warming message had no place at Rio Olympics’ opening ceremony (Sporting News)

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

• What Happens to the U.S. Midwest When the Water’s Gone? (National Geographic):
  The Ogallala aquifer turned the region into America’s breadbasket. Now it, and a way of life, are being drained away.
• Researchers find unsafe levels of industrial chemicals in drinking water of 6 million Americans (Washington Post):
  “Virtually all Americans are exposed to these compounds,” said Xindi Hu, the study’s lead author. “They never break down. Once they are released into the environment, they are there.”
• Study finds unsafe PFOA levels in 33 states (WV Gazette)
• Customers Could Pay $2.5 Billion for Nuclear Plants That Never Get Built (Bloomberg):
  Only two of 18 plants proposed since 2007 under construction…At least seven states including Florida allow utilities to collect nuclear licensing and planning costs from customers before any construction begins.
• Climate Changes at Rio Olympics is Risky For The Health and Performance of Athletes (NewsWeek):
  Sewage water isn’t the only thing competitors may be worrying about at the Rio Olympics: Hot temperatures and air pollution are already interfering with athletic performance. In a preliminary racewalking competition before the games began, 11 out of 18 competitors suffered from heat-related injuries. One athlete even passed out.
• Chevron Wins Big in $9.5 Billion Oil Pollution Case. But It’s Not Over (Bloomberg):
  It’s a devilishly complicated fight””and “must be among the most extensively chronicled in the history of the American federal judiciary,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Amalya Kearse. The litigation, over decades-old contamination by Texaco Inc. in the Amazon, began in New York 23 years ago, shifted to Ecuador in 2003, and has continued to bubble and boil since then.
• A Year After Toxic River Spill, No Clear Plan To Clean Up Western Mines (NPR):
  One year ago on Aug. 5, 2015 an EPA crew at the Gold King Mine in southwest Colorado accidentally unleashed 3 million gallons of orange water filled with mercury and arsenic.
• Two former Republican EPA administrators throw support to Clinton (Washington Post):
  In a joint statement, William D. Ruckelshaus and William K. Reilly say that Trump has showed “a profound ignorance of science and of the public health issues embodied in our environmental laws” and that Clinton is “committed to reasonable, science-based policy.”
• China drafts new rules to curb mining pollution (Reuters):
  Amid rising concerns about the state of its environment, China has declared war on polluters and has drawn up new laws, standards and punishments aimed at forcing firms and local governments to toe the line.
• Social costs of Flint, Michigan, water crisis total $395 million: study (Reuters):
  Overall societal costs of all low-level lead exposures in the United States – measured as lost economic productivity, welfare use and criminal justice system costs – was over $4.5 billion last year, according to the study.
• Pacific Power: Oregon 50% RPS will barely raise customer rates thru 2028 (Utility Dive):
  Complying with Oregon’s 50% renewable energy mandate and its prohibition on coal-fired power will be substantially cheaper than anticipated, Northwest utility Pacific Power told state regulators in a filing last week.

• Oil seesaws as global glut pit against U.S. crude draw forecast (Rueters):
  “The oil market remains in a battle between the trading community which focuses in the shorter term data and information which has been mostly bearish, versus the investment trading crowd which is focused on the medium-to-longer term which is projected to be bullish,” said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute in New York.
• Environmental records shattered as climate change ‘plays out before us’ (Guardian UK):
  Temperatures, sea levels and carbon dioxide all hit milestones amid extreme weather in 2015, major international ‘state of the climate’ report finds.
• June marks 14 consecutive months of record heat for the globe (NOAA):
  Persistent heat on land and in the sea this June shattered records, yet again.
• 7 Things You Should Do After Watching ‘How to Let Go of the World’ (Eco Watch):
  ‘How to Let Go of the World’ is unlike any other documentary you’ve ever seen on climate change. Traveling to 12 countries on six continents, the film acknowledges that it may be too late to stop some of the worst consequences and asks, what is it that climate change can’t destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away?

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).