With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 3/13/2012, 11:02am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Sen. Inhofe puts God before science; GOP puts Keystone lies before U.S. oil and jobs; Fukushima 1 year later; Room for improvement in the US nuclear industry; Wacky warm winter leads to wacky wet early spring; Fracking caused Ohio earthquakes; PLUS: Rick Santorum: anti-science before anti-science was cool ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): World water supply increasingly at risk; Greenland ice melt seen at lower temperatures; 3D solar panels to replace roof shingles?; Breakthrough: Salt-tolerant wheat; Carbon emissions threaten world's oceans & food supply; Mine owner charged in Crandall Canyon Mine Disaster; Planet-saving ozone layer scientist dies ... PLUS: VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

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

  • Climate, Food Pressures Require Rethink on Water: U.N.: (Reuters):
    The world's water supply is being strained by climate change and the growing food, energy and sanitary needs of a fast-growing population, according to a United Nations study that calls for a radical rethink of policies to manage competing claims.
  • Water Pollution From Farming Is Worsening, Costing Billions (Bloomberg News)
  • World Breakthrough on Salt-Tolerant Wheat: (St. Petersburg Times):
    A team of Australian scientists has bred salt tolerance into a variety of durum wheat that shows improved grain yield by 25% on salty soils. Using 'non-GM' crop breeding techniques, scientists from CSIRO Plant Industry have introduced a salt-tolerant gene into a commercial durum wheat, with spectacular results shown in field tests.
  • Greenland Ice Melt Seen at Lower Temperatures: Study: (Reuters):
    The complete melt of the Greenland ice sheet could occur at lower global temperatures than previously thought, a study in the journal Nature Climate Change showed on Sunday, increasing the threat and severity of a rise in sea level. Substantial melting of land ice could contribute to long-term sea level rise of several meters, potentially threatening the lives of millions of people.
  • The threat of carbon emissions on the world’s oceans (Op-ed, Washington Post):
    Emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide doesn’t just change the chemistry of the atmosphere; it makes the oceans more acidic. Predicting the impact on ocean ecosystems involves educated speculation, which often involves applying evidence of what has happened before. In the latest edition of the journal Science, a team of researchers reckons that today’s human-emitted CO2 is increasing ocean acidity far faster than previous, naturally occurring episodes scientists have studied, which themselves appear to have had very alarming results.
  • Science: Ocean Acidifying So Fast It Threatens Humanity’s Ability to Feed Itself (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
    The study is the first of its kind to survey the geologic record for evidence of ocean acidification over this vast time period.

    “What we’re doing today really stands out,” said lead author Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped out—new species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care about—coral reefs, oysters, salmon.”

  • The Disaster Next Door: Potential Disasters Are Closer Than You Think: (Pocono Record):
    It's a sunny morning in the Poconos. As residents prepare to head to work or school, some begin to feel dizzy or light-headed. Others have difficulty breathing or complain of itchy eyes. Few, if any, realize that sulfur dioxide, a colorless, odorless gas used as a bleaching agent and industrial solvent, has been accidentally released into their neighborhood.
  • Would Energy Independence Change Our Lives? (National Geographic):
    [T]he United States is still the world’s largest refiner of oil.
    ...
    One thing is that it shows how one of the favorite promises of American politicians, “energy independence,” may not actually do us much good. It’s true that much of the world’s oil supply lies in the Middle East and other regions that are unstable, unfriendly to the United States, or both. That’s a risk not just to the United States but to the world economy. It’s no wonder many people argue that the less we import, the safer we’ll be as a nation.
  • Solar3D Explores Plan to Integrate its Solar Cell into Roof Tiles: High Power Output and Wide-Angle Light Collection Features Make the Company's Solar Cell Ideal for Building Integrated Applications (Press release, CBS MarketWatch)
  • Breaking: Mine operator charged with two criminal violations in Crandall Canyon Mine Disaster (Coal Tattoo):
    [T]he federal criminal charges [were] filed a few minutes ago against Genwal Resources, the Murray Energy company that operated the Crandall Canyon Mine where six miners and three rescue workers died in that terrible disaster back in 2007.
  • 9 miners die in flood, mine collapse in Colombia (Coal Tattoo)
  • Ozone Layer Scientist Who Saved the World Dies: (AP):
    F. Sherwood Rowland, the Nobel prize-winning chemist who sounded the alarm on the thinning of the Earth's ozone layer, has died at 84.
  • VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
    Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
  • Essential Climate Science Findings:
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