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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Greenpeace activists scale Shell Tower to protest Arctic drilling; US, China agree to cut emissions; Air pollution more deadly than thought; CNBC fails viewers…again; PLUS: Hell freezes over: Fox News reports on climate change?!?! … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 7/11/2013

‘Green News Report’ – July 11, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – July 11, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Monsanto’s GMO seeds lead to rise in insecticide use; Hansen: Fossil fuel addiction could trigger runaway global warming; Fukushima chief engineer dies of cancer; Exxon blames manufacturer for AR tar sands pipeline spill; BP appeals oil spill settlement; Climate activists can learn from LGBT marriage success; FP: Canada now a ‘rogue petrostate’; Power plants linked to 78% drop in fish stocks … PLUS: Funny: Can a Sharknado really happen? … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• CNBC FAIL: CNBC Ridicules Climate Change Science:
• VIDEO: CNBC anchor blasts cult of ‘enviro-socialists’ (Raw Story)
• Business Journalists: Climate Change Deniers Have No Place in Our Reporting (Media Matters): Veteran Financial Scribes React to CNBC Voices Denying Climate Change
• VIDEO: Meet The CNBC Figures Dismissing Climate Science (Media Matters)
• VIDEO: Fox News Reports on Consequences of Climate Change: (Media Matters):
  The report in question, released July 11, found that our unrestrained greenhouse gas emissions will lead to more power disruptions, and noted that many of these impacts are already being felt — drought in Texas, wildfires in the Southwest, flooding in the Midwest, and other events connected to climate change have caused blackouts and billions of dollars of damage.
• DOE: US Energy Infrastructure Extremely Vulnerable to Climate Change Impacts:
• Climate Change Will Cause More Energy Breakdowns, U.S. Warns (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  The effects are already being felt, the report says. Power plants are shutting down or reducing output because of a shortage of cooling water. Barges carrying coal and oil are being delayed by low water levels in major waterways. Floods and storm surges are inundating ports, refineries, pipelines and rail yards. Powerful windstorms and raging wildfires are felling transformers and transmission lines.

  “We don’t have a robust energy system, and the costs are significant,“ said Jonathan Pershing, the deputy assistant secretary of energy for climate change policy and technology, who oversaw production of the report. “The cost today is measured in the billions. Over the coming decades, it will be in the trillions. You can’t just put your head in the sand anymore.“

• READ IT: U.S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Extreme Weather
• Energy Department to boost energy sector climate change efforts (The Hill’s e2 Wire)
• Antarctica: Pine Island Glacier Calves Massive Iceberg:
• Massive Iceberg Breaks off Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica (Climate Central)
• Pine Island Glacier: Iceberg bigger than Chicago breaks off Antarctica glacier (Live Science)
• Air Pollution Deadlier Than Previously Thought, At Lower Levels:
  • Air pollution boosts lung, heart risks: studies (AFP) [emphasis added]:
    European epidemiologists said they had found an unmistakeable link between lung cancer and localised air pollution by particulate matter. Long-term exposure to particulate air pollution boosts the risk of lung cancer, even at concentrations below the legal maximum, said a European study published on Wednesday. A separate report said short-term surge in these particles or other gas pollutants in the air also increases the risk of heart failure.
  • Air pollution linked to higher risk of lung cancer and heart failure: Two studies show effects on health of long- and short-term exposure to pollutants from traffic and industry (Guardian UK)

• Sec. of State Kerry: US, China Agree to Major Emissions Cuts:
• U.S., China agree on climate steps to curb emissions (Washington Post):
  The United States and China agreed Wednesday to tighten pollution standards on heavy trucks, boost energy efficiency in buildings and take a series of other steps to curb greenhouse-gas emissions in the world’s top two polluting countries.
• U.S. and China continue to play nice on climate (Grist)
• Remarks of Sec. of State John Kerry at U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue Joint Opening Session (US State Department)
• Greenpeace Activists Scale Shell’s Skyscraper to Protest Insanity of Arctic Drilling:
• VIDEO: Greenpeace activists scale the Shard to send an Arctic message to Shell: Six campaigners arrested after 310m tower ascent in stunt drawing attention to oil firm’s drilling plans (Guardian UK):
  I don’t want to be in the position in a couple of years where we are showing children pictures of tigers or polar bears and saying ‘we used to have animals like this’.
• PHOTOS: Activists Scale London’s Tallest Building To Protest Arctic Drilling (Climate Progress)
• Ice Climb: Save the Arctic (Greenpeace)
• Shell settles with EPA, DOJ, to spend $115 million to cut pollution at Houston-area refinery (Washington Post)
• Let’s Go! Shell in the Arctic (Greenpeace parody site)

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

• As GMO Biotech Seed Falters, Insecticide Use Surges In Corn Belt (NPR):
  Companies like or that sell soil insecticides for use in corn fields are reporting huge increases in sales: 50 or even 100 percent over the past two years.
• James Hansen: Fossil fuel addiction could trigger runaway global warming (Guardian UK):
  Without full decarbonisation by 2030, our global emissions pathway guarantees new era of catastrophic climate change.

  The world is currently on course to exploit all its remaining fossil fuel resources, a prospect that would produce a “different, practically uninhabitable planet” by triggering a “low-end runaway greenhouse effect.” This is the conclusion of a new scientific paper by Prof James Hansen, the former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the world’s best known climate scientist.

• Masao Yoshida, Nuclear Engineer and Chief at Fukushima Plant, Dies at 58 (NY Times)
• Exxon blames pipeline manufacturer for AR tar sands spill (Grist):
  From ExxonMobil’s press statement about the lab results: Based on the metallurgical analysis, the independent laboratory concluded that the root cause of the failure can be attributed to original manufacturing defects “” namely hook cracks near the seam.
• BP Appealing Settlement on Gulf Disaster Payments (NY Times):
  The plaintiffs’ lawyers dispute the claim, saying that BP is trying to back away from a settlement it negotiated, co-wrote and agreed to.
• House GOP Votes To Block Light Bulb Efficiency Standards (Climate Progress)
• IEA: Oil Supply Will Outpace Demand 20-Year Supply Peak Outpacing Demand Within 20 Years (Bloomberg News) [emphasis added]:
  The assessment should “give bulls some cause for alarm,” the Paris-based adviser to oil-consuming nations said. “While demand growth is also forecast to pick up momentum,” this “will still fall short of forecast non-OPEC supply growth.”
• What can climate activists learn from LGBT activists? (The Daily Beast)
• Foreign Policy Labels Canada ‘A Rogue, Reckless Petrostate’ (Climate Progress)
• Power Plants Kill Fish: Steep drop in coastal fish found in California power plant records (LA Times):
  Fish populations in Southern California have dropped 78% over the last 40 years, according to a new study. Scientists consulted an unlikely source, sifting through records of fish caught up in the cooling systems of five coastal power plants from northern San Diego County to Ventura County. The analysis confirmed what fishing data and stock assessments had long indicated: That there has been a steep, ongoing drop in a wide variety of fish in the region over several decades.
• Shell settles with EPA, DOJ, to spend $115 million to cut pollution at Houston-area refinery (Washington Post)
• FUNNY: Can a “Sharknado” Really Happen? (Mother Jones)
• Regulators OK solar expansion for Georgia Power (AP)
• Infographic: What Climate Change Means for Africa and Asia (World Bank)
• Naive Ezra Klein: You can’t deny global warming after seeing this graph (Washington Post):
  [T]he trend, particularly in recent years, is clear: The world is getting warmer. “The period 2000-2010 was the warmest decade on record since modern meteorological records began around 1850,” the authors write. And it’s not abating. NASA says 2012 was the 9th warmest year on record.
• China’s coal pollution: Deadlier than thought (Washington Post): Study finds China’s policy of free coal has shortened life expectancy in the north by 5.5 years.
• Hurricanes Likely to Get Stronger & More Frequent: Study (Climate Central):
  A new study by Kerry Emanuel, a prominent hurricane researcher at MIT, found that contrary to previous findings, tropical cyclones are likely to become both stronger and more frequent in the years to come, especially in the western North Pacific, where storms can devastate the heavily populated coastlines of Asian nations. … Emanuel’s study casts doubt on what had been the consensus view of most climate scientists “” that in most ocean basins, tropical cyclones are likely to become less frequent as the world warms, but that the storms that do occur are likely to contain stronger winds and heavier rains.

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• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• 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