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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Breaking: L.A. bans single use plastic bags; New study warns 2/3rds of fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground; Autism risk linked to air pollution – again; Keystone XL pipeline won’t use state-of-the-art technology; Alaska hotter than Florida; PLUS: The world’s 1st solar plane an antidote to cynicism? … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 6/18/2013

‘Green News Report’ – June 18, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – June 18, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Syngenta’s dirty tricks campaign to discredit scientists, protect profits; China launches major cap & trade program to cut CO2 emissions; Look out below: Antarctica melting from underneath; Singapore chokes on smoke from deforestation; Many US airports facing threat of sea level rise; Temps in 2300: ‘Too hot to live’; Environmental groups delay lawsuit, wait for Obama; NASA: Arctic methane melt at “amazing levels” … PLUS: VIDEO: Meet the CNBC talking heads dismiss climate science … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• VIDEO: Moniz Explains To GOP Member How He Knows Humans Are Warming The Planet: ‘I Know How To Count’ (Climate Progress)
• L.A. Bans Single-Use Plastic Bans:
• VIDEO: L.A. City Council OKs ban on plastic grocery and carryout bags (LA Times):
  Los Angeles on Tuesday became the largest city in the nation to move toward a ban on plastic grocery bags, with the City Council barring them in supermarkets, convenience stores and any big retailer that sells groceries.
  …
  Opponents of the ban referred to the paper bag fee as an unfair tax. And they argued that it will hurt business in the region, particularly the plastic-bag makers that operate in the southeast section of Los Angeles County.
• Celebrate A Plastic Bag Free L.A. County! (L.A. Dept. of Water & Power)
• All-Time Heat Records Broken in . . . Alaska?! (Climate Central):
  In fact, it was warmer in Talkeetna, which is about 110 miles north of Anchorage, than it was in Miami, based on data from the National Weather Service. In Valdez, which sits along the cool waters of Prince William Sound, the temperature reached a remarkable 90°F Monday.
• UNBURNED: 80% of Fossil Fuel ‘Should Stay in the Ground”:
• Read the Report: THE CRITICAL DECADE 2013 (Climate Commission, Australia)
• VIDEO: Climate Commission report says 80 per cent of fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground (Australia Broadcasting Company) [emphasis added]:
  Professor Lesley Hughes, who co-authored the report, says there will be catastrophic consequences for the environment if the world does not move away from fossil fuels. “In order to achieve that goal of stabilising the climate at 2 degrees or less, we simply have to leave about 80 per cent of the world’s fossil fuel reserves in the ground. We cannot afford to burn them and still have a stable and safe climate,” she said.
• 80% of Fossil Fuels ‘Should Stay in the Ground’ (Price of Oil Blog):
  Since the first report, Australia has experienced record temperatures… The number of record hot days has more than doubled in Australia in the last 50 years.
• AUS: Coal industry vital despite Climate Commission’s warnings against fossil fuels (ABC)
• Air Pollution Linked to Autism Risk – AGAIN:
• Autism Tied to Air Pollution, Brain-Wiring Disconnection (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
  Researchers seeking the roots of autism have linked the disorder to chemicals in air pollution and, in a separate study, found that language difficulties of the disorder may be due to a disconnect in brain wiring.
• Autism, Air Pollution Link Confirmed By First National Study (Huffington Post Green):
  “Women who were exposed to the highest levels of diesel or mercury in the air were twice as likely to have a child with autism than women who lived in the cleanest parts of the sample,” study author Andrea Roberts, a research associate with the Harvard School of Public Health.
• Illinois Gets First-Ever Fracking Regulations:
• Fracking Bill Triggers Rift Among Illinois Green Groups (Inside Climate News):
  Grassroots activists say they feel ‘betrayed’ by mainstream environmental organizations that helped write the state’s new fracking regulations.
• Illinois Gas Drilling Rules: Governor Pat Quinn Signs New Fracking Regulations Into Law (AP)
• Governor Quinn Signs Illinois Fracking Bill
• KXL: TransCanada Won’t Use Best Pipeline Spill Detection Technology:
• Keystone XL Pipeline Shuns High-Tech Oil Spill Detectors (BusinessWeek):
  Pipeline companies have been slow to adopt new leak detection technology, including infrared equipment on helicopters flying 80 miles an hour or acoustic sensors that can identify the sound of oil seeping from a pinhole-sized opening. Instead of tools that can find even the smallest leaks, TransCanada will search for spills using software-based methods and traditional flyovers and surveys.
• KXL’s Outdated Oil Spill Technology (Price Of Oil)
• TransCanada in Damage Control Mode Over Flaws in Newly Laid Southern Leg of Keystone XL Pipeline (Public Citizen)
• This May Be the Antidote to Cynicism: Solar Impulse and Energy Sec. Ernie Moniz:
• Energy chief: Flying across US in high-tech solar plane to boost cleaner energy use on ground (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  It’s not that the experimental European plane is going to change the way the rest of us fly, Moniz said. But it may change the way we drive and the buildings we live in sooner than we think. The high-flying lightweight technology will pay off on the ground far more readily than in the air. This project should lead to cleaner appliances, greener cars and more energy-efficient building.
• Why you should care about Solar Impulse and renewable energy’s long, long journey (Washington Post):
  If you were asleep, and the news passed you by, stop for a second and take stock. There’s a reason you should care – and care deeply – about the journey of Solar Impulse.
  …
  Solar Impulse’s flight across America could unlock the future potential of solar energy. There’s a reason why the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum welcomed the arrival of Solar Impulse in Washington with open arms, and why Department of Energy chief Ernest Moniz said the journey highlighted “a cleaner energy future for the nation.”
• VIDEO: Secretary Moniz Speaks at Solar Impulse Press Conference (Dept. of Energy Youtube Channel)

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

• Fracking presents new strains on water supplies in some drought-stricken areas of the US (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  The latest domestic energy boom is sweeping through some of the nation’s driest pockets, drawing millions of gallons of water to unlock oil and gas reserves from beneath the Earth’s surface…. [T]he exploration method is increasing competition for the precious resource, driving up the price of water and burdening already depleted aquifers and rivers in certain drought-stricken stretches….“There is a new player for water, which is oil and gas,” said Peppler, of Mead, Colo. “And certainly they are in a position to pay a whole lot more than we are.”
• States, green groups delay lawsuit amid Obama climate rumors (The Hill’s e2 Wire):
  “Due to public reports that the President will be announcing major action on climate change very soon, the Attorney General has decided to postpone a lawsuit on this matter for a short period of time,” said Melissa Grace, spokeswoman for New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
• Environmental Rules Delayed As White House Slows Reviews (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  The White House has blocked several Department of Energy regulations that would require appliances, lighting and buildings to use less energy and create less global-warming pollution, as part of a broader slowdown of new antipollution rules issued by the Obama administration.
• Documents: Syngenta’s Secret Campaign to Protect Atrazine, Discredit Critics (Environmental Health News):
  To protect profits threatened by a lawsuit over its controversial herbicide atrazine, Syngenta Crop Protection launched an aggressive multi-million dollar campaign that included hiring a detective agency to investigate scientists on a federal advisory panel, looking into the personal life of a judge and commissioning a psychological profile of a leading scientist critical of atrazine.
• Chrysler Agrees to Repair SUVs on Fire Risk After Probe (Bloomberg)
• VIDEO: Meet The CNBC Figures Dismissing Climate Science (Media Matters)
• Singapore chokes on haze from deforestation fires (MongaBay):
  Singapore and Malaysian officials have asked Indonesia to take “urgent measures” to address forest fires in Sumatra that are sending choking haze northward, reports AFP.
• China Launches Major Cap & Trade Emissions Program (Scientific American):
  To control greenhouse gases the Chinese government is experimenting with pilot programs in seven cities and regions that use markets
• Look Out Below: Antarctic Melting From Underneath (Climate Central):
  Ice experts have long known that Antarctica is losing ice at the margins of its vast ice sheets, where the frozen continent meets the sea “” presumably, they thought, from icebergs breaking off and floating away. According to a report published in Science, however, more than half the ice loss is coming from warming ocean waters, which are melting the ice from underneath.
• U.S. Airports Face Increasing Threat From Rising Seas (Climate Central)
• NASA Finds ‘Amazing’ Levels Of Arctic Methane And CO2, Asks ‘Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?’ (Climate Progress):
  A NASA science team has observed “amazing and potentially troubling” levels of methane and CO2 from the rapidly warming Arctic. Given the staggering amount of carbon trapped in the permafrost – and the fact that methane is a very potent heat-trapping gas – the space agency is now asking: “Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?“
• Too hot to live: grim long-term prediction (Sydney Morning Herald) [emphasis added]:
  HALF the Earth could become too hot for human habitation in less than 300 years, Australian scientists warn. New research by the University of NSW has forecast the effect of climate change over the next three centuries, a longer time scale than that considered in many similar studies. The research suggests that without action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, average temperatures could rise as much as 10 to 12 per cent by 2300.
• We Have Met the Unknown Unknowns and They are Us (Legal Planet):
  There are uncertainties about climate science such as tipping points and feedback effects. But these pale in comparison to the biggest source of uncertainties: people. Here are some of the major things we don’t know and really can’t know about future society.
• Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)

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