With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
By Desi Doyen on 3/29/2012, 3:03pm PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Another big win for Big Oil in the U.S. Senate; Another offshore drilling leak threatens to become another major offshore disaster; Another warning about accelerating climate change from the U.N.; Another study explains why the Right hates science; PLUS: Poo Power! Icky turns to awesome with new energy innovation ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Interior Dept. Approves Shell Arctic Spill Response Plan; 3-D Designs More Than Double the Solar Power Generated; Scientists Map Red Tide Algae; Churches Step Up Environmental Activism; Damaged Japan Reactor Has High Radiation, No Water; CA's San Onofre nuke plant to remain shut down; New EPA regs deliver major benefits: study ... PLUS: Daily Mail = FAIL: Scientist Sets Record Straight on Medieval Warming Research ... 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)...

  • Interior Dept. Approves Shell Arctic Spill Response Plan: (AP):
    Federal offshore drilling regulators on Wednesday approved Shell Oil's spill response plan for exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea, drawing strong criticism from environmental groups that claim oil companies cannot clean up oil in ice-choked waters.
  • Scientists Map Red Tide Algae to Prevent Shellfish Poisoning: (NPR):
    Public health officials have their hands full keeping your clam chowder and raw oysters safe. That's due, in part, to red tides. Red tides happen nearly every year as coastal waters warm, killing fish and poisoning shellfish along U.S. coasts. They're not actually tides; they're huge blooms of naturally occurring toxic algae.
  • Churches Step Up Environmental Activism: (Washington Times):
    With a Bible in one hand and a protest sign in the other, many religious activists are now moving in lockstep with the environmental movement in the fight against oil and gas drilling.
  • Solar Energy: Innovative 3-D Designs More Than Double the Solar Power Generated Per Area (Science Daily):
    [A] team of MIT researchers has come up with a very different approach: building cubes or towers that extend the solar cells upward in three-dimensional configurations. Amazingly, the results from the structures they've tested show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area.

    The biggest boosts in power were seen in the situations where improvements are most needed: in locations far from the equator, in winter months and on cloudier days. The new findings, based on both computer modeling and outdoor testing of real modules, have been published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.

  • Damaged Japan Reactor Has High Radiation, No Water, Stability Doubts (Washington Post):
    One of Japan's crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and hardly any water to cool it, according to an internal examination Tuesday that renews doubts about the plant's stability.
  • San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Prohibited From Restarting (LA Times):
    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission lays out steps that Southern California Edison must take before the troubled San Onofre plant will be allowed to come back on line.
  • The top five things you need to know about EPA’s new carbon rule (David Roberts, Grist)
  • Report to Congress confirms large benefits, modest costs of new EPA rules (Economic Policy Institute) [emphasis added]:
    The Office of Management and Budget just posted a draft of its annual report to Congress on the benefits and costs of federal regulations.
    ...
    [For the “Obama EPA rules”) the results are strikingly positive:
    ...
    The net benefits from these rules is $90 billion a year. The ratio between benefits and costs is 12-to-1.
  • Congressman’s Complaint Puts Tim DeChristopher Into Isolated Confinement (Think Progress Green)
  • Imprisoned climate activist Tim DeChristopher has been placed into confined quarters, because “an unidentified congressman had called from Washington DC, complaining of an email that Tim had sent,” according to Peaceful Uprising.
  • The Daily Mail = Major Fail – Scientist Sets Record Straight on Medieval Warming Research (Climate Crock of the Week)
  • The $22 Trillion Carbon Bubble (Think Progress Green) [links, emphasis in original]:
    The global economy is riding on a financial bubble that dwarfs the subprime crisis - a $22 trillion carbon bubble. On our present pathway, humanity is expected to burn through proven fossil fuel reserves by 2050, making global warming greater than 5°C (9°F) likely and civilizationally catastrophic effects irreversible. To have an 80 percent chance of keeping warming below 2°C, 80 percent of proven reserves [pdf] need to stay unburned. The present estimated value of these civilization-threatening reserves is approximately $22 trillion. [click through for graphic].
  • Damage to oceans could cost $2tr by 2100 (Business Green)
    Damage to natural services provided by oceans could cost the world $2tr a year by the end of the century if steps to curtail climate change are not taken, a study by the respected Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) said today.
  • Global Sea Level Likely to Rise as Much as 70 Feet for Future Generations (Science Daily):
    Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends, future generations will have to deal with sea levels 12 to 22 meters (40 to 70 feet) higher than at present, according to research published in the journal Geology.
  • O.E.C.D. Warns of Ever-Higher Greenhouse Gas Emissions (NY Times):
    Because of such dependence on fossil fuels, carbon dioxide emissions from energy use are expected to grow by 70 percent, the O.E.C.D. said, which will help drive up the global average temperature by 3 to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100 - exceeding the warming limit of within 2 degrees agreed to by international bodies.
  • 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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