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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Baby, it’s hot outside: Hottest year on record in California, hottest August on record for the entire planet; Record hurricane hits Cabo San Lucas; Warm-water fish found in Gulf of Alaska; PLUS: The Green Mountain State goes even greener: Burlington, VT now, officially, 100% renewable … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
9/16/2014
‘Green News Report’ – September 16, 2014 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – September 16, 2014 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Texas proposes rewriting school text books to deny manmade climate change; Severe black lung in coal miners returns to 1970s levels; Fracking production contaminated drinking water in Texas; Poultry firms systematically feed low-dose antibiotics to flocks; Climate change’s ‘evil twin’ – mass extinction … PLUS: Naomi Klein is right: unchecked, unregulated capitalism will destroy civilization … and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Record Heat Wave Hits California:
- Thousands of customers remain without power as L.A. heat wave peaks (LA Times)
- SoCal heat wave: Where temperatures have tied, broken records (LA Times)
- Southern California Heat Wave Forces Schools To Cancel Outdoor Activities (Climate Progress)
- It’s Official: August 2014 Was the Hottest August On Record Globally:
- August was hottest on record worldwide, says NASA (Guardian UK):
2014 is shaping up to be an exceptionally warm year with May and June also the hottest ever/
- The Planet Just Had Its Warmest August On Record (Huffington Post Green)
- VIDEO: Weather in 2050: Warmer, Wetter, Wilder, According to U.N. World Meteorological Organization (The Weather Channel):
Mega-droughts. Long-lasting heat waves. Flooded coastal cities. These are the weather scenarios for 2050 from a series of imaginary yet realistic reports from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that predict of future of warmer, wetter and wilder weather.
- Hottest Year On Record To Date in California:
- AUDIO: California temperatures hottest, driest in 120 years (KPCC Los Angeles):
“If we look at the past 36 months, California is record dry for that period,” Crouch said. “The state racked up such a huge precipitation deficit it would take to a lot of rain and snow to make that deficit up and get California out of drought.”
- Northern California wildfires forcing hundreds to evacuate (SF Gate):
About 400 firefighters struggled to control a fire that started near Oakhurst (Madera County) at 1:40 p.m. Sunday and burned about 320 acres by nightfall, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. As many as 1,000 residents were evacuated from 400 homes, and 10 structures were destroyed, according to the Madera County Sheriff’s Office.
- Record Hurricane Hits Cabo San Lucas in Baja California:
- Hurricane Odile: Unprecedented Cyclone Leaves Widespread Damage in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California (Weather Channel)
- Hurricane Odile Slams Mexico As Storm Leaves Devastation Behind In Popular Tourist Areas (Huffington Post Green)
- Catastrophic flooding possible in Southwest from Odile (USA Today)
- ‘The Blob’: Record Warm Pacific Region Brings Warm-Water Fish to Alaska:
- Unusual species in Alaska waters indicate parts of Pacific warming dramatically (Alaska Dispatch News):
A giant hotspot in the North Pacific Ocean may help explain why a massive ocean sunfish was spotted in Prince William Sound this month and a skipjack tuna was caught in a gillnet weeks earlier near the mouth of the Copper River, scientists say.
- The Gulf of Alaska is unusually warm, and weird fish are showing up (Washinton Post) [emphasis added]:
Something odd is happening in Northern Pacific waters: They’re heating up. In fact, it hasn’t been this warm in parts of the Gulf of Alaska for this long since researchers began tracking surface water temperatures in the 1980s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
…
And now, strange fish are showing up. In the past year, there have been “unusual fish occurrences” in Alaskan waters, according to NOAA research biologist Joe Orsi… - Burlington, VT Goes 100% Renewable:
- 100% of power for Vermont city now renewable (Boston Globe)
- In Vermont, a milestone in green-energy efforts (AP) [emphasis added]:
It’s also a growing movement across the country, as governments and businesses seek to liberate themselves from using power produced by environmentally harmful fossil fuels….”The transition in thought from 2004 to 2008 was ‘We want to do this’ to ‘This actually makes economic sense for us to do this,’” said Ken Nolan, the manager of power resources for Burlington Electric.
- Largest City In Vermont Now Gets All Its Power From Wind, Water And Biomass (Climate Progress):
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Naomi Klein Is Right, Unchecked Capitalism Will Destroy Civilization (Climate Progress):
Choosing “unregulated capitalism” over human civilization would be a “morally monstrous” choice “” and so the winning message for the climate movement is a moral one.
- Coal Kills: Severe black lung in coal miners returns to 1970s levels (Louisville Courier-Journal):
“For more than 10 years we’ve been hearing about the resurgence of black lung. Sadly, there’s been little sense of urgency to address the problem,” said Celeste Monforton, professorial lecturer at The George Washington University School of Public Health and a former MSHA policy adviser.
- Texas proposes rewriting school text books to deny manmade climate change (Guardian UK)
- Natural gas production contaminated drinking water in Texas, study finds (LA Times):
The newly identified cases “caught this contamination in the act,” said Robert Jackson, a study coauthor and professor of environmental science at Stanford University.
The discovery challenges a long-standing assertion by the oil and gas industry that the U.S. energy boom has not damaged water supplies.
- Poultry firms systematically feed low-dose antibiotics to flocks (Reuters):
[S]uch widespread use of the drugs for extended periods can create a “systematic source of antibiotic resistance” in bacteria, the risks of which are not fully understood. “This could be an even larger piece of the antibiotic-resistance problem than I had thought,” Kennedy said.
- Louisiana Governor Hedges On Climate Change As His State Disappears Into the Sea (Climate Progress):
Louisiana Governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate Bobby Jindal (R) unveiled a new energy plan Tuesday that called for increasing on- and off-shore oil drilling and gas fracking, rolling back environmental protections, and completely withdrawing from the United Nations climate negotiation process.
- Climate Change’s Evil Twin: Mass Extinction (A-Team For Wildlife) [emphasis added]:
Professional conservationists say we are now in the 6th Mass Extinction event our planet has ever known. In the past they were caused by natural events, including volcanoes and asteroids. And the process of those extinction events lasted thousands of years, and by the way, took the earth millions of years to recover. In contrast, this time the Mass Extinction is caused by human activity and is happening over mere decades.
- Dead zones haunt Green Bay as manure fuels algae blooms: Many gains from Clean Water Act are lost due to overloads of phosphorous entering waters (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
- GMO safety, weed control top concerns as U.S. study kicks off (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
Agriculture experts raised a number of concerns with genetically modified crops, including safety and spreading weed resistance, at the first public meeting of a U.S. government sponsored study of genetically engineered crops held Monday….[Chuck Benbrook, research professor at Washington State University] said a lack of confidence in the safety of consuming the specialty crops is due in part to a U.S. regulatory system that lacks independent review and relies largely on research supplied by the companies that develop GMO crops.
- Challenging the economics of climate solutions (Daily Climate):
Nations don’t have to choose between promoting prosperity and tackling climate change, according to a report released today by an international panel of government and business leaders.
- New US sanctions on Russia target heart of Putin’s energy empire (+video) (CS Monitor)
- Sun and Wind Alter Global Landscape, Leaving Utilities Behind (NY Times):
Germans will soon be getting 30 percent of their power from renewable energy sources. Many smaller countries are beating that, but Germany is by far the largest industrial power to reach that level in the modern era. It is more than twice the percentage in the United States.
- 97 Hours of 97 Percent of Climate Consensus — With Cartoons! (Climate Crocks) [emphasis added]:
One of the best responses so far, which came thru Reddit: “I first want to thank you for what you are doing and let you know it’s not all for nothing. A few years ago your website convinced me that I was wrong about climate change.”
- Big Oil’s ‘Grass-Roots’ Groups in California (BusinessWeek):
In recent months, groups have popped up that appear to be grass-roots organizations started by ordinary people opposed to the rules. In fact, they’re paid for by the oil industry.
- 4 Scenarios Show What Climate Change Will Do To The Earth, From Pretty Bad To Disaster (Fast CoExist):
But exactly how bad is still an open question, and a lot depends not only on how we react, but how quickly. The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions–if we do choose to cut them–will have a large bearing on how the world turns out by 2100, the forecasts reveal.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
- Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
- How to Solve Global Warming: It’s the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
Restraining global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius will require changing how the world produces and uses energy to power its cities and factories, heats and cools buildings, as well as moves people and goods in airplanes, trains, cars, ships and trucks, according to the IPCC. Changes are required not just in technology, but also in people’s behavior.- Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
- NASA Video: Warming over the last 130 years, and into the next 100 years:
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- Naomi Klein Is Right, Unchecked Capitalism Will Destroy Civilization (Climate Progress):
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