With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
Sea-change edition!...
By Desi Doyen on 10/20/2015, 11:45am PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Obama Administration shuts down Arctic oil drilling; Accountability may be coming for Exxon Mobil; Electrifying changes ahead for the auto industry; PLUS: Conservatives out, Liberals in in Canada - so what about that whole Keystone XL pipeline thing?... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Momentum – But Uncertainty – in Final Pre-Paris Climate Talks; Pakistan's Climate Change 'Time Bomb' Is Already Ticking; Smoke From Indonesia’s Illegal Fires Chokes SE Asia; Monitors Arrive After Radioactive Waste Site Fire in Nevada; White House puts 'super pollutant' HFCs in crosshairs with new initiative... PLUS: With Abandoned Gas Wells, States Are Left With The Cleanup Bill... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

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

  • Momentum – But Uncertainty – in Final Pre-Paris Climate Talks (CS Monitor):
    "Delegations from nearly 200 countries will meet in Bonn, Germany this week to finalize a draft agreement before the UN Paris climate talks in December.
  • With Abandoned Gas Wells, States Are Left With The Cleanup Bill (NPR):
    When energy booms go bust, the public is often left responsible for the cleanup. That's because while most states and the federal government make companies put up at least some money in advance to pay for any mess they leave behind, it's often not enough.
  • Pakistan's Climate Change 'Time Bomb' Is Already Ticking (Tribune):
    The sprawling megacity lies crumbling, desiccated by another deadly heatwave, its millions of inhabitants suffering life-threatening water shortages and unable to buy bread that has become too expensive to eat.
  • Smoke From Indonesia’s Illegal Fires Chokes SE Asia" (Environmental News Service):
    Fires started illegally to clear land for oil palm and acacia pulp plantations in Indonesia are sending thick smoke over the Southeast Asian region, making breathing painful, closing schools, canceling outdoor events and disrupting air traffic.
  • Monitors Arrive After Radioactive Waste Site Fire in Nevada (AP):
    Radiation wasn't immediately detected during fly-overs of a burned trench containing long-buried radioactive waste at a commercial disposal site in rural southern Nevada, state and federal officials said Monday.
  • Bill McKibben Wants Everyone to Know Why He's So Mad at Exxon (InsideClimate News):
    Revelations that the energy giant knew about climate change and obstructed policy prompted him to get himself arrested in protest.
  • White House puts 'super pollutant' HFCs in crosshairs with new initiative (Guardian UK):
    Measures announced on Thursday aim to avoid up to 1bn tonnes of carbon pollution globally by 2025 ahead of December’s climate change summit in Paris
  • How we are all contributing to the destruction of coral reefs: Sunscreen (Washington Post):
    Not only did the study determine that a tiny amount of sunscreen is all it takes to begin damaging the delicate corals — the equivalent of a drop of water in a half-dozen Olympic-sized swimming pools — it documented three different ways that the ingredient oxybenzone breaks the coral down, robbing it of life-giving nutrients and turning it ghostly white.
  • Australia Approves Coal Mine That Environmentalists Call ‘A Complete Disaster’ For Coral Reef (Climate Progress):
    “Carmichael would be a complete disaster for the climate and the Great Barrier Reef,” Greenpeace Australia campaigner Shani Tager said in a statement Thursday. “The federal government and Environment Minister should be in the business of protecting the Reef and the climate, not giving mining companies licence to destroy them. This project means more dredging in the Great Barrier Reef, more ships through its waters and more carbon emissions.”
  • Alpha Natural Discloses Payments to Climate Change Skeptic Chris Horner (Wall St. Journal):
    Bankrupt coal company Alpha Natural Resources Inc. paid lawyer Chris Horner $18,600 before it filed for chapter 11 this summer.
  • Every country is now pledging to tackle CO2 emissions. It's still not enough. (Vox.com):
    In other words, if the world wants to stay below 2°C of global warming - which has long been considered the danger zone for climate change - these pledges are only a first step. Countries will have to do a whole lot more than they're currently promising. And the IEA has a few ideas for what "do a whole lot more" might entail.
    ...
    1. Increase energy efficiency in the industry, buildings, and transport sectors.
    2. Progressively reduce the use of the least efficient coal-fired power plants and banning their construction.
    3. Increase investment in renewable energy technologies in the power sector from $270 billion in 2014 to $400 billion in 2030.
    4. Gradually phase out fossil fuel subsidies to end-users by 2030.
    5. Reduce methane emissions in oil and gas production.
  • 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

  • Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
  • 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.
  • 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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