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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Australia's climate change-denying Prime Minister Tony Abbott takes a coal drubbing; Record number of malnourished baby sea lions washing ashore in CA; BP's missing oil has been found - at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico; PLUS: The first presidential warning on global warming was issued 50 years ago this week... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): We have some really good news on how America uses energy; Of course Paris climate talks won't keep warming below 2 degrees Celius; 'Clean coal' plant FutreGen is dead --- again; Massive mine spill due to design flaw; 5 questions to ask when deciding on rooftop solar; WV legislature guts weak new chemical tank regulations; The real problem underlying deteriorating US road infrastructure; Utility vs. Solar battle gets uglier; Galapagos declares emergency over grounded ship... PLUS: Wind pattern behind California’s drought also struck at ocean food chain... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• 'Liberal' MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Denies Climate Science Again:
• VIDEO: Joe Scarborough Misfires On Climate Change (Media Matters)
• Pope Francis to Address Congress, Will Likely Push Climate Action:
• Report: Pope Francis will accept an invitation to address the US Congress (Crux Now)
• Details of the proposal for Pope Francis' US visit revealed (Catholic News Agency)
• Climate Denier Tony Abbott Gets A Drubbing in Coal Referendum:
• Queensland election 2015: Greens pledge $170 million for solar energy (ABC Australia)
• Has the Queensland “Reef-erendum” election doomed Galilee coal? (Tree Alert Australia)
• VIDEO: Green Party's Christine Milne Says 'Do you want death or do you want coal?' (Youtube)
• Australia state poll, reef risks cast shadow over India coal ventures (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
  
  Queensland saw a voter backlash against the conservative government's plan to sell A$37 billion ($29 billion) of assets to cut debt and fund coal infrastructure at the election. This included money for a rail line and port planned by India's Adani Enterprises for what would be Australia's biggest coal complex, in the Galilee Basin, a remote outback area.
• China About To Launch National Carbon Cap & Trade Market:
• China To Create Carbon Market And Cap Emissions (Climate Progress):
  
  On Wednesday, a Chinese government official said that China plans to launch the first stages of a national carbon market next year.
• China carbon market offset prices diverge on regional bans (Reuters)
• Mines Shut as China Burns Less Coal (Wall St. Journal)
• Lower China coal demand poses challenge (Yahoo Business)
• Baby Sea Lions Washing Ashore In California:
• VIDEO: Baby sea lions in California beaching themselves in record numbers (CBS News):
  
  Some scientists blame warmer water - which is driving baitfish into deeper waters so the pups can't find food.
• Climate Change is Forcing Marine Species to Migrate along the California Coast (Full Time Whistle):
  
  Rapid rise in population of pink slugs in the waters of Central and Northern California is a direct result of global warming, said researchers. A surge in temperatures of the ocean waters has been witnessed around the world, badly affecting a lot of marine creatures.
• Warming oceans changing migration patterns of fish (Daily Astorian)
• Study: Warmer ocean waters to drive Pacific Northwest fish northward (Bellingham Herald)
• Warming Arctic to break down barriers between Atlantic and Pacific fish, study finds (Carbon Brief)
• FOUND: BP's Missing Oil at the Bottom of the Gulf of Mexico:
• BP oil spill left a "bathtub ring" the size of Rhode Island, study says (AP)
• Millions Of Gallons Of Oil Settled At The Bottom Of The Gulf After BP Oil Spill (Climate Progress):
  
  Millions of gallons of oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill didn't get cleaned up, and instead settled in the sediment of the Gulf of Mexico's floor, a new study has found.
• "Missing oil" from 2010 BP spill found on gulf seafloor (Live Science) [emphasis added]:
  
  "This is going to affect the Gulf for years to come," Jeff Chanton, the study's lead researcher and a professor of chemical oceanography at Florida State University, said in a statement. "Fish will likely ingest contaminants because worms ingest the sediment, and fish eat the worms. It's a conduit for contamination into the food web."
• VIDEO: Third BP trial begins with nearly $14 billion at stake (Fox News New Orleans)
• Fifty Years Ago This Week: LBJ Warned of Global Warming:
• A 50th anniversary few remember: LBJ's warning on carbon dioxide (The Daily Climate) [emphasis added]:
  
  It is a key moment in climate change history that few remember: This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first presidential mention of the environmental risk of carbon dioxide pollution from fossil fuels..."Air pollution is no longer confined to isolated places," said Johnson less than three weeks after his 1965 inauguration. "This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels."
• Special Message to the Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty, February 8, 1965 (LBJ Library)
• The History of Carbon Dioxide as a Greenhouse Gas. (Weather Underground)

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

• Of Course Paris Climate Talks Won't Keep Warming Below The Dangerous 2°C Limit (Climate Progress):
  
  We have been ignoring climate scientists for so long - more than a quarter-century - that there was never a possibility that one agreement could change our emissions pathway so sharply. [But there's hope...]
• We Have Some Really Good News About How America Uses Energy (Mother Jones):
  
  This morning Bloomberg New Energy Finance released a fat report on the state of US energy, and it's chock-full of kickass facts and figures that reveal real, tangible progress on reversing the habits that cause climate change.
• Wind pattern behind California’s drought also struck at ocean food chain (American Geophysical Union):
  
  Unusual weather that contributed to the California drought also led to an unprecedented drop in small plant-like organisms in the northeastern Pacific Ocean that form the base of the ocean food chain, potentially affecting fish, birds and marine mammals, according to new research.
• FutureGen Dead Again: Obama Pulls Plug On ‘NeverGen’ Clean Coal Project (Climate Progress):
  
  The U.S. Department of Energy has finally pulled the plug on FutureGen 2.0, which was an attempt to reboot a failed Bush-era “clean coal” project. The final death of this troubled 12-year effort to capture CO2 from a coal power plant and bury it underground is more evidence that we shouldn’t expect large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) before the 2030s at the earliest.
• Bill would exempt thousands of tanks from post-spill safety law (Charleston Gazette):
  
  “The bill is an extreme gutting of the protections the Legislature passed unanimously last year,” said Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “It makes us question if anything was learned at all from the water crisis, as this essentially returns us to where we were with underregulated above-ground storage tanks threatening our water.”
• Canada: Mt. Polley Mine Dam Breach Caused by Design Flaws, Investigators Say (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
  
  “The evidence indicates that the breach was the result of failure in the foundation of the embankment,” Norbert Morgenstern, one of three government-appointed investigators, said Friday in a presentation in Victoria, British Columbia. “We concluded that the dominant contribution to the failure resides in the design.”
• 5 Questions to Ask When Deciding Between a Commercial Solar Loan and a PPA (GreenTech Media)
• Conservative Media Baselessly Invoke Solyndra To Smear Obama Budget (Media Matters):
  
  Conservative media revived their Solyndra scandal-mongering to attack the proposed clean energy funding in President Obama's budget. But contrary to their claims, Solyndra did not receive the clean energy tax credits included in the President's budget, and the budget doesn't increase funding for the largely successful loan guarantee program that did support Solyndra.
• The Solar-Utility Battle Is Getting Ugly (GreenTech Media):
  
  If the war of words between SolarCity and Arizona Public Service is any indication, this year will bring an escalation in tension between the solar industry and utilities throughout the U.S.
• Galapagos declares emergency over stranded ship (BBC):
  
  Ecuador has announced a state of emergency in the Galapagos Islands, a week after a cargo ship with hazardous materials ran aground there.
• More Money Won’t Fix U.S. Infrastructure If We Don’t Change How It’s Spent (USA Streetsblog) [emphasis added]:
  
  As long as state DOTs retain unfettered control of the money, potholed roads and decrepit bridges will remain the norm. That’s because the sorry state of American transportation infrastructure is mainly the result of wasteful spending choices, not a lack of funding.
• Not enough time for geoengineering to work? (Bulletin of Atomic Scientists):
  
  The first issue has to do with the deployment time necessary to introduce a technology at scale, and the second with how long we would need to commit to geoengineering to make a difference.
• These New Polls Show Why Americans Should Believe Climate Scientists In 30 Years (Climate Progress)
• It's Not Too Late To Stop Climate Change, And It'll Be Super-Cheap (Climate Progress):
  
  I rarely disagree with Dave Roberts. But he has a column on Grist, "We can solve climate change, but it won't be cheap or easy," that is wrong, pure and simple....The most important climate issue is the cost and consequences of inaction.

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: California, United Nations, Mainstream Media Failure, Environment, Green News, BP Oil Disaster, Coal, Oil, Climate change, Joe Scarborough, Australia