Today on The BradCast: For years, we've called out the authoritarian petrostates working to block the fight against fossil fuels and our existential battle against climate change that has been exacerbated by them. Even as the U.S. has long been the world's worst per capita emitter, I think today, under this particular President, is the first time we've had to include the U.S. government itself as one of those "authoritarian petrostates." [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

FIRST UP... It's another win for New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump. As you know, she successfully oversaw several fraud cases (both civil and criminal), against him and his company in the Empire State last year. Since re-taking office, Trump has weaponized his Justice Dept. to try and exact his revenge against James. He continues to fail. Hilariously.

First he had to find someone willing to seek an indictment against James after his own U.S. Attorney in Virginia refused to do so. He appointed his personal insurance lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, to the job. She was able to obtain a grand jury indictment related to supposed mortgage fraud. But two weeks ago, a judge tossed out the indictment after finding Halligan was unlawfully serving as U.S. Attorney. Last week, Trump found a federal prosecutor from Missouri who was willing to re-indict James. But the grand jury rejected the indictment! (In an amusing side note, yesterday ProPublica found that Trump himself appears to have committed the very same "crime" that he has been trying to indict James for!)

Then, on Monday night, a federal judge in Massachusetts found in favor of a group of some 18 state Attorneys General, led by James, who had sued to block Trump's "Day One" Executive Order shutting down virtually all wind farm projects on federal lands and waters. The EO was tossed out by the judge as "arbitrary and capricious" and a violation of U.S. law. James wins again! So do the residents of those states and all the rest of us who pay the price for dangerous, climate killing fossil fuel energy, rather than clean, cheap renewable energy like wind power.

SPEAKING OF PAYING THE PRICE FOR FOSSIL FUELS... The 30th annual U.N. Climate Summit (COP30) wrapped up in Brazil a couple of weeks ago. For the first time, the United States, under the Trump Administration, didn't even bother to send a delegation. Ultimately, progress toward the world's transition away from fossil fuels to meet the 10-year old Paris Climate Agreement targets --- to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times --- was stymied by fossil fuel industry lobbyists and authoritarian petrostates like Saudi Arabia, Russia and now, sadly, the U.S. The conference's final statement, which must be agreed upon by all parties, did not even mention fossil fuels.

Today, as the European Union's climate change service announced that 2025 would be either the second or third-hottest year ever recorded globally, after 2024 smashed all previous records, we are joined by one of the world's premier climate scientists.

Dr. MICHAEL E. MANN is the Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science and Director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the group awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Price, author of some 160 peer-reviewed and published papers, and of more than half a dozen books on climate science. His latest, with vaccine scientist Dr. Peter J. Hotez, is Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World.

Today, Mann joins us to share, among many related things, his thoughts on the disappointment of COP30 in Brazil, and how that "Bad COP" suggests that it may be time for a new format for the annual climate conferences. "The U.N. needs to show some backbone," he urges today.

As to the U.S. under Republican/Trump rule, he tells me: "The problem is that you have a small number of bad actors, authoritarian petrostates, leading among them, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and now the United States. We have to view the United States as part of what I sometimes call the 'Coalition of the Unwilling.' A small number of fossil fuel-driven countries that are doing everything they can to block a global agreement."

Mann warns, during our broad discussion, that the time for action to prevent the worst effects of climate change is now quickly running out. "It is sometimes said that 'Nature bats last,'" he quips today. "The Earth's system, the global climate, doesn't care about the politics of fossil fuel countries, and the bickering between the petrostates and the rest. The climate system doesn't care. It will continue to warm up as long as we burn fossil fuels. And all of these impacts will continue to get worse."

"We have a finite budget, a finite amount of carbon that we can burn and keep the planet below 1.5 Celsius --- for Americans, it's 3 degrees Fahrenheit, basically --- a level of warming beyond which we will see far worse consequences than we've already witnessed," Mann explains. "We can actually calculate, with some uncertainty, how much carbon is left in that budget. The calculations show that three years of business as usual --- if we don't begin to ramp down those carbon emissions dramatically, if we just continue with business as usual for three or more years --- then we burn through that budget."

"What's so tragic is if we had acted decades ago, if politicians around the world, governments around the world, had listened to the scientists decades ago, we could have fairly gently decarbonized our societal infrastructure. A fairly gentle reduction of carbon emissions, and a relatively slow, steady move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. We could have afforded that, if we had started acting decades ago. We can't afford that now. We have got to undergo that transition in a matter of years. Right now, we are clearly not meeting the moment when it comes to these annual climate summits. Something's gotta change."

We also discuss his continuing feud with Microsoft founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates, who Mann charges with now spreading climate disinformation at an alarming rate by suggesting that somehow a 'technological fix' will be found to solve these problems; how climate scientist Mann found common ground with virus scientist Hotez to co-write their new book, Science Under Siege on "the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World" (and what those forces now are); and how --- and if --- he remains optimistic that the world can overcome the quickly worsening climate challenges we now face with so little time left before impacts become irreversible.

"This is Tolkien-esque battle. It's a battle not for Middle Earth, but for Earth itself," he tells me, referencing the Lord of the Rings novels. "There are so clearly forces of good and evil that are involved. I think framing it in those terms can be helpful and clarifying. There's a line...'There's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.' It's about fighting the good fight. Even if the odds don't seem in your favor, and the forces against which you are fighting seem overwhelming, the only way you're going to prevail is if you fight the good fight. And that's what we've got to do."

Tune in for much more worth hearing from Mann today...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Death toll climbs in Southeast Asia after simultaneous typhoons; U.N. COP30 climate summit ends with sharp divide over phasing out fossil fuels; PLUS: While you were out on holiday, the Trump Administration got busy bringing back dirty air and contaminated water... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): Pthalates: How these chemicals went everywhere and threaten our health; BLM Lets Ranchers Renew Grazing Permits With Little Environmental Scrutiny; Regulator Stopped Enforcing Gas Flaring Limits After Alberta Pressure; Exxon Halts Plans For Massive Low-Carbon Hydrogen Facility In Texas; Murdoch Media Wrongly Pinned NJ High Rates on Clean Energy, Says Watchdog... PLUS: Is Trump going after Venezuela's largest oil reserves?... and much, MUCH more! ...

Things are not going well for the President of the United States. As revealed by the mostly breaking news stories covered on today's BradCast, today may be seen as one of the worst days he has ever had. Here's hoping for more such days. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]

• Tuesday began pleasantly enough, with Donald Trump offering Saudi Arabia's crown prince a royal welcome to the White House in advance of a black tie dinner, despite the fact that the CIA determined that Mohammed bin Salman likely personally approved the 2018 bone saw murder of Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi. After the regal parade of Saudi and U.S. flag-draped black horses and a rare flyover by six U.S. fighter jets to celebrate the arrival of the killer prince and major Trump Family business partner, Trump berated a reporter for daring to ask about the murder. He claimed, appallingly, that "a lot of people didn't like" Khashoggi anyway, that bin Salman "knew nothing about it", and, even if he did, hey, "things happen."

• Around the same time, on the other end of Pennsylvania Ave., victims of Trump's longtime best friend and convicted pedophile, the late Jeffrey Epstein, were rallying on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with the lead, bi-partisan co-sponsors of a bill mandating the Dept. of Justice release the "Epstein Files". One of the survivors, a Trump voter who was introduced to Epstein when she was just 14 years old, described the President as a "national embarrassment". The bill was finally to be voted on today, after months of attempted obstruction by both Trump and supposedly very Christian Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Today's vote happened only thanks to a Discharge Petition signed by a majority of House members (all Democrats, 4 Republicans) demanding it. Despite Trump's months of cover-up, blocking the DOJ from releasing the files that he could have ordered released in full at any time, the four sentence legislation was adopted nearly unanimously by the U.S. House in a 427 to 1 vote. Apparently, nobody other than Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) wanted to be regarded as having voted to protect pedophiles.

• Within hours, remarkably, the U.S. Senate, without debate, adopted the same bill by another veto-proof margin. The measure was passed by unanimous consent before heading to Donald Trump's desk for his signature. You think he'll hold one of his big signing ceremonies to do it?

• With all of that seemingly very good news, we echo the caveat I offered on yesterday's show. A provision in the legislation (the third of four sentences) allows the DOJ to "withhold certain information" including "materials that would jeopardize an active federal investigation." As luck would have it, just last week, months after Trump's DOJ declared there was nothing left to investigate in the Epstein matter, and days before Trump would pretend to flip-flop to favor the bill, he asked his corrupt Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into the involvement of his political foes with Epstein. She complied within hours, of course. On Sunday, Republican co-sponsor of the Discharge Petition in the House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-LA), warned the new investigations might prevent the DOJ release of the files. Today, before the vote, at the presser on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) --- who deserves credit for taking on the President by keeping her name on the Petition --- warned same. That, after Trump's pretend change of heart on Sunday calling for the release of the files by instructing Republicans to vote for the bill so that lawmakers "can have whatever they are legally entitled to". The latter part of that phrase, observed David Kurtz today, is "doing a lot of work there."

• As rare as successful Discharge Petitions are in forcing votes on bills that the House Speaker refuses to bring to the floor, it happened yet again on Monday! A majority of House members, with the help of a few swing district Republicans signed on to force a vote --- within seven days, as required by House rules --- on a bill that would roll back Trump's Executive Orders earlier this year blocking collective bargaining rights for most federal workers.

• But things got even worse for Trump as today wore on. This time on the Gerrymandering Wars front. A three-judge federal appeals court panel in Texas blocked the new Trump-ordered gerrymander of the state's already gerrymandered U.S. House map, finding it to be an unlawful and unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Following a ten day hearing, the 2 to 1 ruling by the court panel, written by a Trump-appointed federal judge, blocked the new map from going into effect for the 2026 election --- at least for now. The new map was written by the GOP state Legislature to flip five, largely minority House seats from "blue" to "red" next year. It resulted in California voters recently adopting a new map, in an overwhelming statewide vote, to flip the same number of seats from "red" to "blue" in response. That map --- and perhaps a similar one now in the works by Democrats in Virginia --- will stay in place next year, unless otherwise blocked by a court for some reason. Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott vowed to appeal today's ruling to his friends on the corrupted U.S. Supreme Court.

• The ruling in the Lone Star State comes on the heels of the decision late last week by the Republican leaders of the Indiana state Legislature, to not redistrict the state's already very red U.S. House map in a Special Session this year, despite heavy pressure from Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. The decision resulted in social media threats by Trump against both men, and a swatting attack against one of them. Despite that dangerous situation just hours after Trump's initial threat --- and his laughable opposition to political violence --- he issued another similar one against Republican lawmakers in the Hoosier State on Sunday.

• Finally, also not great news for Trump in today's Green News Report with Desi Doyen, as Trump's joke of a FEMA Director is pushed out after just six months; the U.N. climate summit under way in Brazil (which the U.S. sent no representatives to) declares it will finally be taking on climate disinformation by the fossil fuel industry and its supporters (like Trump); and that, speaking of, new documents reveal Exxon has been quietly funding climate denial and disinformation campaigns across Latin American for years...

As noted, it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for Donald Trump, which is generally a very good day for the rest of us, as described with much more context, detail, insight, color, sound and special effects on today's program. I hope you'll tune in...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Trump Administration denies disaster aid for Arkansas, Kentucky and other states; Nationwide blackouts hit Spain and Portugal; The world's biggest oil companies have caused $28 trillion in climate damages; PLUS: Trump fires all the scientists working on the U.S. Government's flagship climate change assessment... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): A grim signal: Atmospheric CO2 soared in 2024; DOGE employees gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets; Scientists are raising the alarm about Trump's deep sea mining executive order; Oil companies downplayed extent of spills in Gulf of Mexico; North Dakota enacts first US law shielding Roundup from some cancer lawsuits; Interior plan slashes oil and gas environmental reviews to 1 month... PLUS: Report on national monuments being eyed for energy draws concerns... and much, MUCH more! ...

On the day that vaccine science denier RFK, Jr. testified before Congress to become the nation's next Sec. of Health and Human Services, it seems only appropriate on today's BradCast to discuss the Trump Administration's War on Science. [Audio link to full shows follows this summary.]

But, before we get there, a few news items of note --- some of them, actually very good news, believe it or not!...

• If you're wondering how things are going for Republicans around the country amid Trump's second, absurdly chaotic week in office, a special election on Tuesday in a very "red" state Senate district in Iowa may offer a hint. The Democratic candidate defeated the Republican by 4 points, flipping a seat in a district that Trump won last November by about 21 points. But that is hardly the only good news today...

• Public (and media) pressure works! While Donald Trump may want to be the Fascist-in-Chief, he is not there yet. He is not invincible. In no small part because he still sucks at the job of Presidenting. On Monday night the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a stunning memo, virtually out of nowhere, declaring that, on Tuesday at 5pm, there would be a full shutdown of some $3 trillion in Congressionally-appropriated grants and loans. The order would seriously cripple Americans in all walks of life in all 50 states. The freeze, as made very clear over the ensuing 24 hours, would effect about half of the entire annual federal budget. It was also unlawful. It would have stopped payments for Medicaid, disaster relief, farm aid, student loan programs, Head Start’s day care centers for kids, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, highway funds, nutrition assistance, rent assistance, cancer treatment programs, medicine for millions with HIV around the world, veterans suicide hotlines and scores of other very popular programs. But public push-back on the scheme was so loud --- from the media and from Americans in "red" and "blue" states alike --- that by Wednesday morning, the White House was forced to fold. Their ill-considered memo was rescinded. What does this mean moving forward and what lessons should be learned? We discuss. (But don't tell Trump's failed, personal defense lawyer turned ridiculously uninformed White House counselor Alina Habba!)

• More good news: This week, a majority of workers at a Whole Foods Market voted to unionize in Philadelphia. It's the first store in the Amazon-owned chain to do so.

• But bad news on a related front: Trump unlawfully fired one of three National Labor Relations Board Members, its former Chair, on Monday. The removal of Gwynne Wilcox, the NLRB's first black female Member, whose term was not set to expire until mid-2028, means the Board does not currently have a quorum to make any decisions in its critical federal oversight role over labor disputes and union elections. Wilcox called the dismissal "unprecedented and illegal" and vows to challenge it. In the meantime, the NLRB's critical work, with unionization elections pending around the nation, grinds to a full stop.

THEN... We are honored to be joined on the show again today, for a wide-ranging discussion, by one of the nation's most esteemed and indefatigable climate scientists and authors, DR. MICHAEL E. MANN, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science; Director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media; and Vice Provost of Climate Science, Action, and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

In this month's issue of Skeptical Inquirer, Mann joins with renowned virologist Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine, to break down what they describe as "A triple threat to humanity". Namely, climate change, newly emerging pandemics and "perhaps the most insidious component of all: a well-organized, financed, politically motivated, and steadily globalizing campaign of disinformation and attacks against mainstream science that makes it extremely difficult to mount an effective global response to the climate and pandemic threats." The pair have a forthcoming book on related issues, titled Science under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World.

We discuss that War on Science today, who's funding it and how it endangers life on Earth. There is "an agenda here to create doubt, to discredit experts," Mann tells me. "Because in a world of relativism, where anybody's facts are as good as anyone else's, it's very favorable for bad actors like fossil fuel interests, the Koch brothers, petrostates like Russia and Saudi Arabia, with whom we are now aligned when it comes to our own policies under the new Trump Administration.

"Calling science into doubt, discrediting scientists and experts, is part of their agenda," Mann explains. "Creating confusion, doubt, conflict, chaos favors their agenda. Rational decision-making doesn't."

We also discuss a whole bunch of climate-related politics of the day and even some climate science, including...

• The real concerns about Trump's withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement and who it will benefit in addition to the fossil fuel industry;
• Trump's ridiculous claims about California's water system and the real cause of the recent, horrific fires in Los Angeles;
• Whether Trump and and his climate science-denying cronies know they are lying about climate change ("I know some of these people. I know some of these think tanks and front groups because they've come after me for decades. So I know who they are. These are smart people. They are well-educated people. They know they're lying.");
• How China views the Trump Presidency as "an opportunity to be the adult in the room," "take the moral upper hand" and make billions of dollars "leading in development of clean energy technology" now that the U.S. is "ceding any leadership in this area";
• Why 2024 was the warmest year on record, even though 2023, which held the previous record, was particularly hot thanks to an El Nino that dissipated the following year. 2024 was supposed to be cooler. What happened? Have climate scientists been underestimating the speed in the rise of global temps?
• And much more...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.K. and Ireland hit with deadly back-to-back storms; China's electric vehicle boom is eroding global demand for oil; PLUS: Time is running out to cash in on Biden's climate law incentives before Trump kills them... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): 75% of Earth's land got drier in recent decades, U.N. says; TCE: All uses of 'Camp Lejeune Solvent' to be phased out by EPA rule; Their fertilizer poisons farmland. Now, they want protection from lawsuits; The climate risk to the mortgage system; Biden moves ahead with drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but minimizes acreage; Europe's battery dreams die, but China cashes in... PLUS: Supreme Court case on Utah railway could impact U.S. environmental laws... and much, MUCH more! ...

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.N. plastics treaty negotiations collapse in South Korea; U.N. COP29 climate talks end with weak agreement in Azerbaijan; PLUS: Extreme drought is an immigration issue, study warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): Landmark climate change case opens at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas; Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems; Here’s what happened when experts at COP29 played a climate change board game; How MAGA wants jurists to reshape climate policy; A warning from California's record marine heat wave; UN calls for $2.6 trillion investment to reverse land degradation; News Corp's ‘Special Report’ on natural gas was paid for by industry... PLUS: Inside the plastic industry's battle to win over hearts and minds... and much, MUCH more! ...

Today on The BradCast: Either Trump wins or the nation gets it, apparently. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

For months now, the Republican propaganda outlet known as Fox "News" has been leading the rest of the rightwing echosphere in misleading the public about this year's election. To listen to their 24/7 lockstep message, it is a metaphysical impossibility that Donald Trump could lose this November. If he does, it can only be because Democrats have stolen the election "again", as "they did in 2020."

While its hosts almost certainly know better, they have been characterizing Joe Biden as so old and feeble --- and Trump so wildly popular --- that there can only be one legitimate outcome this year: a Trump victory. A Trump landslide, in fact. Anything short of that is, as Fox is dangerously grooming its brain-poisoned viewers to believe, due to massive fraud carried out by Democrats.

We're joined today by MATT GERTZ, longtime Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, to discuss his research --- detailed in an op-ed last week --- on how "Fox News is helping Trump plan another Jan. 6-style assault on democracy."

"If you look at the last two presidential elections --- in 2016 Donald Trump won, in 2020 Donald Trump lost --- the one thing that they have in common is that in both cases, Donald Trump claimed to have been the victim of massive election fraud," Gertz tells me today. "He always does this. It is the most predictable thing in politics, that Donald Trump will claim he is the victim of election fraud with no evidence to that effect." But now, of course, Fox "News" is joining in on the scam and the "guard rails" that were in place in 2020 in the Republican Party are all now all but gone, warns Gertz.

"What Fox News, and the rightwing media more broadly, has been doing over the past several years, is prime their audiences to assume that any election that doesn't end with a massive Trump victory is the result of illegitimate votes being cast, that it is a rigged election against Donald Trump and they should respond with all possible action to prevent Joe Biden from being allowed to remain in office if he wins."

"What's different now is that they know what the result can be," charges Gertz. "They know that all of these claims about election fraud incite their viewers, that it leads them to even march upon the Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transition of power. And they're doing it anyway."

I have been wondering aloud of late which outcome concerns me the most, a Trump victory or a Trump loss. It might be a toss-up right about now...

THEN... We've been covering the oppressive heat dome across much of the nation --- and elsewhere in the world --- for some time now. Last week, we added wildfires in several states to the mix, along with the first named storm of hurricane season spinning quickly up before slamming Mexico and the southern coast of Texas. Now we can add massive flooding to the mix, as several states in the Upper Midwest --- where South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota meet --- inundated over the weekend with as much as eight times their typical rain fall for this part of the year. In one town, the flood gauge was submerged!

Many of those states are run by Republican Governors who are also climate change denialists, reminding us, yet again, that the stakes this November could not be higher, as Trump has vowed to rollback all of the landmark climate achievements of the current President.

In related news, as temperature records are being shattered around the globe, at least 1,300 pilgrims at the annual Hajj in the Saudi Arabia's city of Mecca died from heat stroke as temperatures climbed above 124 degrees Fahrenheit. And, oddly enough, back here in California, on the central and northern coast, unseasonably cold ocean temps --- due to a bizarre weather pattern from Oregon --- have led officials to issue warnings to beach goers to stay out of the water for any length of time to avoid hypothermia, even as temperatures inland climbed over 100 degrees this weekend. More madness and chaos in our climate changed world...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Extreme heat intensifies across Eastern U.S. as Tropical Storm Alberto kicks off hurricane season; Deadly wildfires force evacuations in New Mexico; Delhi, India and Saudi Arabia hit astonishing record temperatures; PLUS: U.S. schools grapple with the impacts of extreme heat... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): Summer of extreme heat could worsen FEMA disaster funding shortfall; UN food chief: Poorest areas have zero harvests left; Billion-dollar weather disasters are soaring again this year. Here’s why; Miami is entering a state of unreality; Dr. Michael Mann on heatwaves: 'No economy on a dead planet'; The delusion of advanced plastic recycling using pyrolysis... PLUS: US acknowledges Northwest dams have devastated the region’s Native tribes... and much, MUCH more! ...

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Canada's fire season erupts, forcing evacuations, as wildfire smoke chokes U.S. Upper Midwest; Record-breaking increase in carbon dioxide levels in the world's atmosphere; PLUS: Michigan is newest state to sue Big Oil for mounting climate damages... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): Biden's EV tariffs give U.S. automakers a fleeting chance; FERC shakes up power industry with landmark grid rule; El Niño to end by June, La Niña seen in second half of 2024; Cloud brightening study in CA halted by local officials; Greenhouse gas milestone; CO2 levels set record; Alabama uses deed covenants to ward off flooding claims from black residents; Why you CAN recycle pizza boxes, and other recycling myths debunked; World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target... PLUS: Where will you go if your town disappears into the ocean?... and much, MUCH more! ...

Legislation is hard. It involves compromise and stuff. But the bulk of Republican state Senators in Oregon won't have to worry about that anymore. At least for a few years. Also, stealing money from your duped political donors to cover your mountain of legal fees to defend your law breaking appears to be very easy if you are the disgraced former President. And, a whole bunch of landmark climate and energy successes under Joe Biden that you likely haven't about, but should have. Those are just some of the many news stories covered on today's BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]

Among them...

• As of airtime, we're still waiting for (sorta overdue) key rulings on Donald Trump's ridiculous "Presidential Immunity" claims at the DC Court of Appeals and on how much Trump and company (and sons) will have to pay up in New York's $370 million bank fraud suit against them. In the meantime, Trump has lost again today in court on an entirely different matter. This time in London, where his lawsuit against the Steele Dossier's author was summarily dismissed by a UK judge (just as the similarly absurd suit filed by Trump against Christopher Steele, Hillary Clinton and top FBI officials was rejected by a U.S. judge in 2022.)

• All of those failed lawsuits, and defending himself against civil cases and four criminal felony indictments is costing Trump's gullible dupes/supporters a lot of money. New FEC filings released today reveal that Trump spent/blew $27 million of his donors' money on personal legal bills in the second half of last year, bringing the total amount of campaign donor money used for legal fees in 2023 to about $50 million. That number is expected to be much higher in 2024, giving the phrase "chump change" a whole new meaning.

• The Oregon Supreme Court, on Thursday, determined that 10 Republican state Senators may not run for office in 2024, after violating a 2022 state Constitutional Amendment adopted by voters in a 36-point landslide that year. The measure bans state lawmakers from running in the next election after they've accrued more than 10 unexcused absences. The GOP state Senators in question walked out for a record 6-weeks in 2023 in hopes of blocking legislation on abortion rights, LGBTQ rights and gun safety, delaying or killing hundreds of other bills in the bargain. The state Senate currently has only 12 Republicans. Ten of them, including the chamber's minority leader, are now barred from running for reelection this year.

• The U.S. House passed a bipartisan bill! It is compromise tax legislation. Republicans agreed to offer modest tax relief to low income families with children, so long as Democrats agreed to extend huge tax breaks to wealthy corporations and small businesses. Nobody got everything they wanted, and the legislation, adopted on Wednesday by a lopsided 357-70 House vote, will almost certainly change or be killed altogether in the Senate. But that's how legislation works. Or is supposed to work. Or used to work. And, for one day this week, incredibly enough, it did again. We discuss why it did.

• "Government, in a large, wealthy, functional modern democracy, is pretty boring. Lots of bureaucracy, lots of agencies, lots of complexity, lots of rules, mostly incremental change. It's not particularly dramatic," noted our friend climate and energy journalist David Roberts on Twitter on the last day of the year. "That makes it a very poor fit for the dynamics & demands of modern media, especially social media. Drama, outrage, sweeping counterintuitive generalizations --- these are the coin of the realm. No one gets clicks by celebrating the workaday operation of the gov't machine," he continued. "Consequently, boring democratic governance --- perhaps the greatest advance in collective human welfare in history --- has no day-to-day defenders. Basically everyone is incentivized to take it for granted."

  Of course, we are defenders of that "boring democratic governance" and we don't take it for granted. Roberts was linking to a lengthy --- and wildly enlightening --- thread from former professor turned White House clean energy policy advisor Costa Samaras, who detailed a stunning year-end list of positive, landmark environmental actions and initiatives undertaken by the Biden-Harris Administration in the wake of passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act (adopted only by Democrats). If you think Biden has done little for climate and clean energy you may want to review Samaras' list.

  Just one of dozens of examples: "The Inflation Reduction Act & @POTUS' agenda have supercharged U.S. grid-scale energy storage. Before the Biden-Harris Administration, grid-connected energy storage was basically zero. This year there will be 9 Hoover Dams worth of batteries on the grid. Next year: 16 Hoover Dams."

• Finally, Desi Doyen is here with our latest Green News Report, as the Saudis nix expanded production (and lower gas prices) in time for this year's Presidential election in the U.S.; Millions of Americans are found at risk of toxic chemical freight train disasters; EU phases out dirty heavy-duty diesel trucks by 2040; and the Biden Dept. of Energy issues new rules to save gas stove users thousands of dollars in efficiency improvements (while taking no one's gas stove away from them, Fox "News"!)...

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...




(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Saudi Arabia ditches plans to expand oil production; Millions of Americans at risk of dangerous chemical train derailments, new study finds; European Union to phase out polluting heavy duty diesel trucks by 2040; PLUS: Biden Dept. of Energy issues new efficiency rules for natural gas stoves... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): "Nobody and nowhere will be safe": Experts say we can't hide from climate change; Mexico City residents protest 'unprecedented' water shortages; Electrified transport investment soared globally in ’23, passing renewable energy; New York State first in nation to protect birds, insects from neonic pesticides; California counties sue Tesla over hazardous waste; Environmentalists hail Nevada Supreme Court ruling on water management and massive real estate development; U.S. will pay to add solar panels to hospitals, schools after disasters... PLUS: Plug-in hybrids vs. electric cars: We did the math on which is better for you... and much, MUCH more! ...

Follow @GreenNewsReport...



(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Crunch time at COP28 U.N. climate treaty negotiations in Dubai; Climate change intensified ongoing, catastrophic floods in East Africa; PLUS: Biden announces biggest-ever investment in U.S. high speed and passenger rail... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): Endangered species list grows by 2,000, due in part to climate change; With new House Speaker, billions in climate and energy funding hang in the balance; Alberta sets new methane 'super-emitter' record; One side of Florida is running out of water. The other is getting bombarded with too much rain; Rising sea levels threaten hazardous waste facilities along U.S. coast; First Biden-funded electric car charging station opens... PLUS: Specter of second Trump term looms over global climate talks... and much, MUCH more! ...

We've got an unusually large amount of somewhat encouraging environmental-related news on today's BradCast. We apologize in advance. Don't worry. It's not all good.

Among today's stories...

• More than 40 inches of snow fell on parts of the Northeast over the past two days. Desi Doyen explains why that may --- or may not be (though probably is) --- related to climate change.

• Donald Trump's very narrow gag order in his $250 million civil fraud trial in New York, meant to bar him from attacking the court clerk --- which had resulted in hundreds of vile death threats against her --- has been reinstated by the state appeals court. Trump and his lawyers are pretending this is the greatest "tragedy" and injustice in world history. Shortly after the ruling [PDF] was handed down, Trump began posting attacks on social media against the Judge's wife.

• OPEC+ member states, including cartel leader Saudi Arabia, Russia and others, announced they will be cutting oil production in 2024 in hopes of raising your gas prices in an election year. They had already cut production in late 2022, but, thanks in part to record U.S. oil production under the Biden Administration, prices came down anyway. (Yes, we realize that's the oppose of what you've been told by Republicans.) Sick of manipulation of global gas prices by foreign adversaries hoping to interfere in U.S. elections? We've got a few answers to that in the rest of today's show.

• The Biden Interior Dept. announced on Thursday that it had invested some $468 million to advance wildfire resilience and a temporary increase in pay for firefighters across the nation under the Administration's "Investing in America" agenda, as wildfire season gets longer and more deadly thanks to our climate crisis. (The Biden-Harris Administration says it is working hard to find a way to make those pay increases permanent. But GOP members of Congress may have to play along.)

• The Biden EPA also announced some very big news on Thursday. The Administration has proposed new restrictions on lead levels in drinking water that will result in all 9 million of the nation's lead water pipes --- which can cause brain damage and behavior disorders, particularly in children --- being replaced over the next 10 years! "To finally have a rule that mandates the removal of lead pipes is exactly what the government should be doing,” declared the Michigan pediatrician whose research first discovered the 2014 Flint, Michigan lead poisoning water crisis. This is very very good news and, yes, exactly the sort of thing that the federal government should be doing --- and should have done long ago!

• But for, perhaps, the best examples of the federal government doing what it should be doing to help Americans this week came from Joe Biden's own remarks at a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Pueblo, Colorado on Wednesday. It is the largest such plant in the world, and will be even larger soon thanks to a number of pieces of legislation adopted during his Presidency. In his remarks, Biden touted the Administration's multifaceted jobs and manufacturing agenda --- via bills such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS Act and more --- which has resulted in a clean energy jobs and manufacturing boom across the country. In this case, he was speaking in the district of --- and pushing back at --- handsy far-right Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and other Republicans who voted against all of the measures that have brought thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to her own district.

• Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report with a suspiciously high ratio of good to bad news for a change today. It must be something in the water today. Hopefully it's not lead.

CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!...

MONTHLY BRAD BLOG SUBSCRIPTION	ONE-TIME DONATION
Choose monthly amount... $10 : $10.00 USD - monthly$20 : $20.00 USD - monthly$50 : $50.00 USD - monthly$100 : $100.00 USD - monthly	(Snail mail support to "Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028" always welcome too!)

Follow @GreenNewsReport...



(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Australia signs historic climate refuge treaty with Pacific Island nation Tuvalu; GOP's third 2024 primary debate --- in Miami --- ignores climate change; Last 12 months were the hottest in recorded human history; Some big policy changes after the 2023 elections; PLUS: Manchin to exit the Senate... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Click here to listen or download MP3 (6 mins)...

Link:
Embed:

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): What to know about today’s three big climate reports; Over 60 countries back deal to triple renewable energy this decade; How much trees fight climate change? Massively, but not alone; Microplastics problem just got worse; Oil firms attending climate talks have minimal green energy transition plans; 20 farming families use more water from the Colorado River than some Western states; Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls to lowest since 2018... PLUS: Desperate for water, desert city hopes to build pipeline to CA Aqueduct... and much, MUCH more! ...