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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Oil spill clean up continues in Santa Barbara; Major media steps up, challenges Presidential candidate Rick Santorum on climate science denial; World’s largest economies put an expiration date on fossil fuels; Wanna see how climate change will affect your grandkids? NASA has just the thing; PLUS: Secret donors gave $125 million to climate denial front groups in just 3 years… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
6/11/2015
‘Green News Report’ – June 11, 2015 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – June 11, 2015 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): EPA’S Proposed Carbon Regulations Will Create Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs; Offshore Oil Drilling Banned Along New Stretch of California Coast; Court Gives Obama a Climate Change Win; Studies link childhood lead exposure, violent crime; EPA: Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Airplanes Are Dangerous To Human Life; Republican Pours Money Into U.S. Climate, Clean Energy Foundation; Obama Administration Readies Big Push on Climate Change… PLUS: Ontario Restricts Pesticides Blamed for Decline of Bee Populations… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Santa Barbara Co. Oil Spill – $62 Million Cleanup:
- Santa Barbara Oil Spill Cleanup Has Cost $62 Million So Far (AP):
An official with Plains All American Pipeline told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the costs are running at $3 million a day, and there’s no timetable for when the cleanup will be complete.
- Santa Barbara oil spill: Request by Exxon to haul oil after pipeline break denied (SoCal Public Radio)
- California Oil Spill Pipeline Had Been Left To Rust Paper-Thin (AP):
An oil pipeline that ruptured and spilled an estimated 383,000 litres (101,000 gallons) of crude near Santa Barbara in May had been allowed to corrode to a tiny fraction of its original thickness, federal regulators have said.
- Major Media Challenges Rick Santorum On Climate Change Denial:
- VIDEO: CNN’s Jake Tapper Challenges Rick Santorum On Climate Change Denial, Pope Remarks: “Why Not Take The Overwhelming Majority Of Scientists At Their Word And Take Seriously That Humans Are Contributing To Climate Change?” (Media Matters)
- VIDEO: Fox Host Hits Santorum On Pope And Climate Change: You’re Not A Scientist (Talking Points Memo) [emphasis added]:
“If he’s not a scientist — and, in fact, he does have a degree in chemistry — neither are you,” Wallace said, adding that 80-90 percent of scientists agree that humans contribute to climate change…“If he shouldn’t talk about it, should you?” Wallace asked.
- Santorum: I’m More Qualified Than Pope Francis To Talk About Climate Change Because I’m A Politician (Climate Progress)
- Op-ed: Rick Santorum tells pope what to do (Chicago Tribune):
Apparently that’s true if the science conflicts with your worldview. In Santorum’s case, the science behind evolution and climate change is dodgy. But the science behind the things he believes in — like vaccinations and gravity and the fact that you can say dumb things into a television camera and millions of people will hear you — is perfectly fine.
- Meet The Only Prominent GOP Presidential Candidate Who Accepts Climate Science (Climate Progress)
- Secret Donors Gave $125 Million To Climate Change Denial Groups in 3 Years:
- Secretive donors gave US climate denial groups $125m over three years (Guardian UK):
Funds allocated to organisations lobbying against Obama’s climate bill and working to undermine rules to reduce carbon pollution, tax records show
- Meet the Network Hiding the Koch Money: “Donors Trust” and “Donors Capital Fund” (PR Watch)
- SourceWatch: Donors Capital Fund: Donors Capital Fund (DCF), formed in 1999, is a 509(a)(3) supporting organization associated with DonorsTrust.
- Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax (DeSmogBlog)
- Exposed: The Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative Movement (Mother Jones, 2/5/2014):
You haven’t heard of Donors Trust, but it’s bankrolled the right’s fights against unions, public schools, climate scientists, and more.
- Heartland Institute Hosts 10th Annual Climate Denier Conference:
- Senator James Inhofe on Climate Change: “God Is Still Up There” (The New Republic) [emphasis added]:
At a conference of climate-change deniers in Washington on Thursday, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe showed his audience a slide of global temperature trends and said, “If you look, you’ll see God is still up there.”….[H]e also warned his audience that there might be some movement on climate politics within his party.
- The Climate Conference Networks Hardly Acknowledge (NewsBusters):
Gathering to protest carbon emissions often makes the evening news. But when hundreds gather to hear scientists from various disciplines argue that global warming isn’t the dire threat the media claim … crickets.
- G7 Pledges To Decarbonize By 2100:
- G7: End of fossil fuel era? (BBC) [emphasis added]:
Their targets are not binding – but they send a clear message to investors that in the long term economies will have to be powered by non-polluting energy. The world’s leaders have effectively signalled the end of the fossil fuel era that has driven economies since the Industrial Revolution.
This is a seismic shift – and an acknowledgement from the leaders, prompted by Angela Merkel, of the scale of the threat from climate change. - G7 climate goal requires gargantuan economic shift (CBS News) [emphasis added]:
Still, the message from the leaders of the world’s most powerful developed countries is important because it’s the first time they acknowledge what needs to happen to keep global temperatures from reaching dangerous levels, said Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economist and U.N. special adviser. “It does mean in practice an enormous shift from a fossil fuel-based energy system to near-zero carbon energy sources. It’s a big deal,” he said. “Not unlike the Apollo mission.”
- G7 pledges to end greenhouse emissions this century (CS Monitor):
Top world leaders agreed Monday to dramatically reduce or altogether eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2100, in an announcement meant to build momentum for a global climate deal in Paris this December.
- G7 Carbon Goal May Come Too Late, Scientists Say (Climate Central)
- See How Climate Change Will Impact Your Grandkids in 2050-2100:
- NASA Releases Detailed Global Climate Change Projections (NASA) [emphasis added]:
NASA has released data showing how temperature and rainfall patterns worldwide may change through the year 2100 because of growing concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere….The NASA climate projections provide a detailed view of future temperature and precipitation patterns around the world at a 15.5 mile (25 kilometer) resolution, covering the time period from 1950 to 2100. The 11-terabyte dataset provides daily estimates of maximum and minimum temperatures and precipitation over the entire globe.
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- New Report Shows EPA’S Proposed Carbon Regulations Will Create Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs (Climate Progress):
We can expect 100,000 new jobs by 2020, while lowering carbon emissions, the Economic Policy Institute said.
- Court Gives Obama a Climate Change Win (NY Times):
A federal court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by the nation’s largest coal companies and 14 coal-producing states that sought to block one of President Obama’s signature climate change policies.
- Studies link childhood lead exposure, violent crime (Chicago Tribune):
After growing up poor in a predominantly African-American neighborhood of Cincinnati, the young adults had reached their early 20s. One by one, they passed through an MRI machine that displayed their brains in sharp, cross-sectioned images. For those who had been exposed to lead as toddlers, even in small amounts, the scans revealed changes that were subtle, permanent and devastating.
- EPA: Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Airplanes Are Dangerous To Human Life (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
But rather than set a standard, the U.S. agency opted to let an international group lead the way on curbing airplane emissions.
- Ontario Restricts Pesticides Blamed for Decline of Bee Populations (Toronto Globe & Mail):
The Ontario government has unveiled North America’s first agricultural restrictions on a widely used class of pesticides blamed for the decline in bees and other pollinators.
- Republican Pours Money Into U.S. Climate, Clean Energy Foundation (Reuters):
A Republican businessman said on Monday he is pouring millions of dollars into a foundation that sees opportunities where the majority of his fellow party members do not: easing climate change and speeding the country’s transition to clean energy.
- Obama Administration Readies Big Push on Climate Change (Wall St. Journal):
The Obama administration is planning a series of actions this summer to rein in greenhouse-gas emissions from wide swaths of the economy, including trucks, airplanes and power plants, kicking into high gear an ambitious climate agenda that the president sees as key to his legacy.
- Offshore Oil Drilling Banned Along New Stretch of California Coast (San Jose Mercury News):
In the largest expansion of national marine sanctuaries in California in 23 years, the Obama administration on Tuesday more than doubled the size of two Northern California marine sanctuaries, extending them by 50 miles up the rugged Sonoma and Mendocino coasts.
- Nuclear Plants Gear Up With FLEX To Prevent Disaster (Baltimore Sun):
Sitting on a hill about a half-mile from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant is a hulking concrete and steel bunker. It is jammed full of new trucks, trailers, portable generators, pumps, hoses, electrical cables and a raft of other emergency equipment.
- Wet Spring Reduces Wildfire Risk in Most of US for June (AP):
An unusually wet May reduced the likelihood of wildfires during June over much of the nation, but the danger will increase from July through September, the National Interagency Fire Center said in its latest outlook report.
- NOAA Study Confirms Global Warming Speed-Up Is Imminent (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
[M]any recent studies have found that we are about to enter an era of even more rapid global warming…[O]ne March study, “Near-term acceleration in the rate of temperature change,” warns the speed-up is imminent — with Arctic warming rising a stunning 1°F per decade by the 2020s.
- Now’s Your Chance to Help Save the Imperiled Monarch Butterfly-and Get Paid to Do So (Take Part) [emphasis added]:
Another threat, according to Grant, has been well-intentioned individuals who have planted a tropical form of milkweed, which competes with native varieties and is not beneficial to monarchs or other pollinators.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
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.
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.
The Pope may be concerned because only 1.14% of the world’s ice needs to melt to bring disaster to civilization (Why Sea Level Rise May Be The Greatest Threat To Civilization – 4).
I doubt that Santorum even knows where the relevant ice is.