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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Greenland is melting, and sea levels are rising; It's official - Winter 2014 was the 8th warmest on record; CO2 emissions breach 400ppm - again; ExxonMobil admits climate change will hurt business; PLUS: Rising ocean acidification already killing the shellfish industry ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Koch Brothers are the largest land holders in Canada’s tar sands; Energy industry chronically overestimates cost of pollution regulations; How NASA thinks society will collapse; World's oldest CO2 measurement threatened by budget cuts; White House launches climate science website; Pet coke company fined for "inexcusable conduct"; House to vote on 'No More National Parks'; Will Ferrel insults Robert Redford to save a river ... PLUS: Climate Scientists: We’re Alarmed. Here’s Why You Should Be, Too. ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• It's Official: Winter 2014 was 8th Warmest on Record:
• NOAA: Global temperatures 8th warmest on record for October (NOAA): Strengthened La Niña conditions expected through winter
• A Cold U.S. Winter for Sure, but 8th Warmest Globally (Climate Central):
  
  Despite the frigid temperatures that kept those in the eastern United States shivering all winter, the period from December 2013 to February 2014 was the 8th warmest on record globally, the U.S. National Climatic Data Center reported Wednesday. That warmth early in the year could set the stage for another record or near-record warm year, one NCDC scientist said.
• Greenland Is Melting And Sea Levels Are Rising:
• STUDY: Sustained mass loss of the northeast Greenland ice sheet triggered by regional warming (Nature)
• VIDEO: Scientists Warn of Rising Climate Change Risks: (AAAS)
• Global warming melts edge of Greenland icesheet (Sydney Morning Herald):
  
  The last edge of the Greenland ice sheet that had resisted global warming has now become unstable, adding billions of tonnes of meltwater to rising seas, scientists say.
• New Greenland Ice Melt Fuels Sea Level Rise Concerns (AP) [emphasis added]:
  
  The stability of the region is particularly important because it has much deeper ties to the interior ice sheet than other glaciers on the island. If the entire ice sheet were to melt which would take thousands of years in most climate change scenarios sea levels would rise up to 23 feet, catastrophically altering coastlines around the world.
• VIDEO: New Paper: Awakening Greenland Giant – Not So Jolly (Climate Crocks)



• Atmospheric CO2 Breaches 400ppm --- AGAIN:
• Comment on Recent Readings in Excess of 400 ppm (Keeling Curve, UCSD)
• CO2 on Path to Cross 400 ppm Threshold for a Month (Climate Central):
  
  Last year, atmospheric carbon dioxide briefly crossed 400 parts per million for the first time in human history. However, it didn’t cross that threshold until mid-May. This year’s first 400 ppm reading came a full two months earlier this past week and the seeming inexorable upward march is likely to race past another milestone next month. “We’re already seeing values over 400. Probably we’ll see values dwelling over 400 in April and May. It’s just a matter of time before it stays over 400 forever,” said Ralph Keeling.
• 400ppm: What Does This Number Mean? (Keeling Curve)
• Support CO2 and O2 Measurements at Scripps! (Keeling Curve)
• Ocean Acidification Already Hurting Pacific NW Shellfish Industry:
• VIDEO: Millions of Scallops Dead Due to Ocean Acidification (Weather Channel)
• Acidic ocean deadly for Vancouver Island scallop industry (CBC): Millions of shellfish are dying off before they can be harvested at Island Scallops
• VIDEO: Scientists, Shellfish Hatcheries See Ocean Acidification Take Huge Toll On Marine Life (KPIX CBS San Francisco)
• VIDEO: Acidic waters killing off millions of scallops along the West Coast (CTV News) [emphasis added]:
  
  Rob Saunders, CEO of Island Scallops in B.C., says the rapid decrease in scallop populations has cost him millions in revenue. “By June of 2013, we lost almost 95 per cent of our crops,” he told CTV News.
• Northwest Oyster Die-offs Show Ocean Acidification Has Arrived (Yale Enviroment e360)
• Exxon Mobil Admits Climate Change Will Hurt Business:
• In a Shift, Exxon Agrees to Report on Carbon Asset Risk (NY Times)
• Exxon agrees to look into this whole climate change thing: "Companies need to acknowledge that preparing for a low-carbon future is a necessity, not a choice" (Salon) [emphasis added]:
  
  According to Exxon, “the report will provide investors with greater transparency into how ExxonMobil plans for a future where market forces and climate regulation makes at least some portion of its carbon reserves unburnable.”

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

• Climate Scientists: We’re Alarmed. Here’s Why You Should Be, Too. (Climate Progress):
  
  [T]he American Association for the Advancement of Science, has issued an uncharacteristically blunt call to action on climate change. The must-read new report by the AAAS’s Climate Science Panel, “What We Know” has several simple messages: We are as certain that humans are responsible for most recent climate change as we are that cigarettes kill.
• Koch Brothers are the largest land holders in Canada’s tar sands (Washington Post)
• Energy Industry Overestimated Cost Of Pollution Controls: Study (Hufington Post Green):
  
  "Recently, these industries have again predicted that government pollution limits would result in skyrocketing electricity prices. However, their record as prognosticators is quite poor," the report contends. "Their past predictions of doom were wrong, and so are their current claims that the Environmental Protection Agency's, or EPA's, first carbon-pollution cuts for power plants would be disastrous."
• Here's How NASA Thinks Society Will Collapse: Too much inequality and too few natural resources could leave the West vulnerable to a Roman Empire-style fall.
• World's Oldest Direct Measure Of Atmospheric CO2 May Lose Its Funding (Climate Progress)
• White House Unveils Climate Data Website To 'Empower America's Communities To Prepare (Huffington Post)
• VIDEO: Watch Will Ferrell and Robert Redford hilariously insult each other to save a river (Grist)
• Permian Basin: America’s newest fracking boom where there's not much water (HIgh Country News)
• Tonawanda Coke Ordered to Pay $24 Million For "Inexcusable Conduct" (Buffalo News):
  
  Tonawanda Coke on Wednesday was ordered to pay $24 million for what a judge called 'singularly inexcusable' conduct that left much of the community wondering if the company created a public health crisis.
• House To Vote On Controversial ‘No More National Parks’ Policy (Climate Progress)
• Spring Thaw May Trigger Floods; Calif. Drought Locked In (Climate Central)
• Goldman Sachs: Solar Is On The Way To Dominating The Electricity Market (Business Insider):
  
  Goldman Sachs has set an estimated date for when they believe residential solar power becomes competitive with existing electric across the U.S.... 2033.
• Climate change will force relocation of millions, says UN IPCC draft report (Brisbane Times) [emphasis added]:
  
  Global warming will displace millions of people, trigger falling crop yields, stoke conflict and cost trillions of dollars in lost economic output, a United Nations report will warn. A draft of the report - to be finalised this month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - obtained by The Independent in Britain, says "hundreds of millions of people" will be forced to relocate because of coastal flooding and land loss as sea levels rise.
• Please, scientists: Tell us how you really feel about climate change (Grist):
  
  We need scientists to speak more of these non-hard science truths, no matter how inconvenient or how dirty. Once, just once, I want to hear a scientist say … fuck.
• First Climate Article On Nate Silver’s Data Website Uses ‘Deeply Misleading’ Data, Top Climatologists Say (Climate Progress)
• Good news for Seattle: These solar panels work best in overcast weather (Grist): These organic photovoltaic solar panels are 13 percent efficient in diffuse light. Eat your heart out, San Diego!

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• GMO: Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It (Wired):
  
  After years of predicting it would happen - and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators - scientists have documented the rapid evolution of corn rootworms that are resistant to Bt corn.
• Unskilled and destitute are hiring targest for Fukushima cleanup: (NY Times):
  
  'Out of work? Nowhere to live? Nowhere to go? Nothing to eat?' the online ad reads. 'Come to Fukushima.' That grim posting targeting the destitute, by a company seeking laborers for the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is one of the starkest indications yet of an increasingly troubled search for workers willing to carry out the hazardous decommissioning at the site.

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

• Video Proof That Global Warming is a 'Hoax'!: NASA Temperature Data 1888-2011 (The BRAD BLOG):



• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).

                 

Article Categories: Environment, Green News, Coal, Oil, Climate change