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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Huge Christian organization divests from fossil fuels; Germany pledges $1 billion to international climate fund; Australia slides backward to repeal carbon tax; Step aside, Formula One racing: all-electric Formula E is on your tail; PLUS: Climate denier Rupert Murdoch’s Big ‘But’ … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

7/15/2014

‘Green News Report’ – July 15, 2014  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – July 15, 2014  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): How long will world’s oil reserves last? 53 years, says BP; Clear differences between organic and non-organic food; Chevron admits oil shale will use huge amounts of West’s water; US oil consumption still rising; Nuclear waste plan unsafe, panel told; Midwestern farmers fight ‘superweeds’ of their own making; 7 earthquakes in OK in 1 day; Early fire season destroys homes in PacNW … PLUS: Neverglades: Sorry, Time Magazine, South Florida IS Drowning … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• VIDEO: CNBC’s Climate “Expert”: “Demonization Of Carbon Dioxide Is Just Like” Demonization Of “Jews Under Hitler” (Media Matters): Exxon-Funded Physicist William Happer Fulfills Godwin’s Law
• Surprise! Rupert Murdoch Is A Climate Science Denier:
• VIDEO: Rupert Murdoch doesn’t understand climate change basics, and that’s a problem (Guardian UK):
  The man whose media empire is the main source of global warming misinformation displays an awful misunderstanding of climate science in a Sky News interview



• Rupert Murdoch: NBN a ridiculous idea and climate change overblown (Guardian UK):
  News Corp owner says broadband network not needed and Australia ‘shouldn’t build windmills and all that rubbish’
• Rupert Murdoch Says Climate Change Should Be Approached With Great Skepticism (Climate Progress)
• FOXLEAKS: Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science (Media Matters 12/15/2010):
  …we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.
• Australia To Repeal Landmark Carbon Tax, UK Retreats From ‘Green Crap’:
• Australia facing ‘unprecedented rise in climate denial’ (RTCC)
• Climate Politics Are Stranger Than Fiction In Australia (Climate Progress):
  This week, a conservative government led by fossil fuel-friendly prime minister Tony Abbott was unable to repeal the carbon pricing due to another faction holding sway in the Senate — a group of four Palmer United Party (PUP) senators, a new party founded by mining multimillionaire Clive Palmer.
• UK: David Cameron’s reshuffle gets rid of the ‘green crap’ (Guardian UK)
• US: Liz Cheney’s Bold Climate Change Plan: Do ‘Nothing’ (Huffington Post)
• World Council of Churches Divests From Fossil Fuels:
• VIDEO: World Council of Churches pulls fossil fuel investments (Guardian UK):
  Campaigners hail ‘major victory’ as council representing half a billion Christians says it will stop investing in fossil fuels
• Moving churches to discuss the morality of climate change (Washington Post)
• Faith leaders need to find their voice on climate change (Guardian UK): Religious institutions need to find their voice and set their moral compass on one of the great humanitarian issues of our time.
• International Action on Climate Change Surges Forward: Germany Pledges $1B:
• Germany pledges $1bn to UN climate change fund (Guardian UK):
  Green Climate Fund, designed to help poorer countries deal with global warming, receives boost from Angela Merkel
• Big questions about the Green Climate Fund (Oxfam America)
• Ideas on UN climate deal “converging”, says German environment minister (RTCC):
  “At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue it became clear that we are on the right track and that ideas about the 2015 agreement are converging,” she said. “However, there are still different opinions on the agreement’s internationally binding character, the degree of regulation and its level of ambition.”
• Merkel returns to climate politics with call for EU leadership (RTCC)
• ‘Germany must support renewables, not coal’ (Deutsche Welle News):
  Germany is hosting the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin from July 14th to 15th. Greenpeace Climate Chief Martin Kaiser says Chancellor Angela Merkel has a chance to personally re-engage with climate policy.
• UN climate talks close on upbeat note (Deutsche Welle News)
• U.S., China ink coal, clean energy deals in climate cooperation (Reuters UK)
• Check Your Six, Formula 1: Formula E Is On Your Tail:
• Support builds for battery-powered auto racing (Boston Globe):
  After watching the muted shakedown at Donington, Kyle Moyer, director of racing operations for the Andretti Autosport team, said: “We could have a normal conversation and the cars are going by. It’s like ‘The Jetsons.’ This is how the future was supposed to be when I was a little kid.“
• VIDEO: Ride onboard a Formula E car (Top Gear UK) [emphasis added]:
  Never heard of Formula E? Shame on you. It’s a brand new fully electric racing series heading your way later this year. No engines. No petrol. No, um, sound either.
• First time ever FIA Formula E full power onboard lap (Lucas di Grassi’s YouTube Channel)



• VIDEO: Formula E Car – Test Debut (FIA Formula E)

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

• Clear differences between organic and non-organic food, study finds (Guardian UK):
  Research is first to find wide-ranging differences between organic and conventional fruits, vegetables and cereals
• Neverglades: Sorry Michael Grunwald, South Florida IS Drowning (Climate Progress):
  Hmm, if the waters are rising around you and your current course of action must inevitably lead to your total inundation and death, is that “drowning”? As purely semantic questions go, I suppose it might have some interest to linguists and journalists. As existential questions go, however, everyone in Miami needs to understand that the city simply is not going to exist unless we immediately start ignoring the do-nothing and do-little crowds.
• How long will world’s oil reserves last? 53 years, says BP (CS Monitor):
  The world has 53.3 years left to find an alternative to oil before current proved reserves run dry, according to BP. Of course, nations are finding new oil — meaning that number is rising — but new extraction methods are costly and can pose environmental threats.
• Chevron Admits The Truth: Oil Shale Will Use Huge Amounts Of Western Water (Climate Progress):
  One of the largest oil companies in the world has been forced in court to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about one of the key environmental impacts of developing oil shale in the arid West. Namely, it will consume an enormous amount of water in a region where drought and climate change are already stressing available water supplies.
• America’s Oil Consumption Is Rising, Not Falling, Outpacing China’s (InsideClimate News):
  For the first time in 14 years, the nation’s crude oil consumption in 2013 was higher than China’s, new figures show.
• Nuclear waste plan unsafe, panel hears (Toronto Globe & Mail):
  A retired nuclear scientist has slammed Ontario Power Generation over its proposed $1-billion nuclear waste burial site on Lake Huron, saying the utility’s safety assessment contains some dangerous errors.
• Midwestern farmers wage war against ‘superweeds’ (St. Louis Post-Dispatch):
  The survivors are so-called superweeds, a catchy term for what’s technically known as an herbicide-resistant weed. They’ve been around for decades, really. But they’re getting a lot of attention these days, with farmers increasingly running into aggressive varieties that can’t be killed by the herbicide that revolutionized modern farming.
• Seven earthquakes shake Oklahoma in two days (KOCO Oklahoma City):
  Oklahoma experiencing unprecedented earthquake activity.
• Firefighters battling seven blazes in Washington state (LA Times):
  “Some record highs may be broken during this stretch,” AccuWeather.com meteorologist Andy Mussoline said on the forecaster’s website. “The normal high is 75 F.”
• Congressional Candidate: Most Energy Problems ‘Are Caused By Environmentalists’ (Climate Progress)
• Politics & Global Warming, Spring 2014 (Yale Project for Climate Communication) [emphasis added]:
  We find that registered voters are 2.5 times more likely to vote for a congressional or presidential candidate who supports action to reduce global warming. Further, registered voters are 3 times more likely to vote against a candidate who opposes action to reduce global warming.
• Renewable Energy Provided 1/3 of Germany’s Energy in First Half of 2014 (Climate Progress):
  Thanks to favorable weather and record production from solar and wind power, renewable energy accounted for approximately 31 percent of Germany’s electricity generation in the first half of 2014.
• Zero carbon and economic growth can go together, UN study says (Guardian UK):
  The top 15 emitter countries could make deep cuts to emissions while also tripling economic output, according to the study

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).