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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Climate and energy get short shrift in 2nd Democratic Presidential Debate; Yes, U.S. Media, climate change remains a national security threat; International climate talks will go forward despite Paris terror attacks; PLUS: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoes major natural gas project… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
11/17/2015
‘Green News Report’ – November 17, 2015 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – November 17, 2015 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Canadian PM Trudeau effectively kills Northern Gateway pipeline; Antibiotics in Animal Feed May Endanger Kids, Doctors Warn; New Map of Earth’s Groundwater To Help Estimate When It May Run Out; Minigrids Seen as Fix for 620 Million Africans Without Power; Brazil’s Slow-Motion Mine Catastrophe Unfolds; Beyond what #Exxonknew, refineries face flooding dangers; Manure From Millions of Hogs Fuels Natural Gas Project… PLUS: So You Want to Be a Polar Bear Wrangler? … and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- U.N. Climate Talks Go Forward Despite Paris Terror Attacks:
- Paris climate deal meeting still on as Republican leaders register opposition (Guardian UK):
Despite Friday’s horrific attacks, Obama and other world leaders will attend talks in France, as Republicans in Congress continue to fight Obama’s climate plan
- France to limit U.N. climate summit to core talks, ban rallies: PM (Reuters)
- Big Paris climate march may be cancelled, even as official summit goes forward (Grist)
- France to push on with UN Climate Conference despite Paris terror attacks (Sydney Morning Herald):
The summit is more important now than ever, French Energy Minister Segolene Royale told Le Point magazine: “If not, terrorism wins,” she said.
- Climate and Energy Get Short Shrift in 2nd Democratic Debate with CBS:
- VIDEO: CBS News Democratic Debate (CBS News)
- The CBS Democratic debate transcript, annotated (Washington Post)
- CBS Democratic debate: news and updates (Vox.com)
- VIDEO: Bernie Sanders doubles down on climate change-terrorism link (CBS News Face the Nation):
Pressed by moderator John Dickerson over the explicit link between a drought and the Paris attacks this weekend, Sanders took the connection one step further. “When people migrate into cities and they don’t have jobs, there’s going to be a lot more instability, a lot more unemployment, and people will be subject to the types of propaganda that al Qaeda and ISIS are using right now,” he said.
- Martin O’Malley: Zero out fossil fuels by 2050 (Gov. Martin O’ Malley, op-ed, USA Today)
- Hillary Clinton Lays Out Climate Change Plan (NY Times)
- Hillary Clinton proposes $30bn lifeline for hard-hit coal communities (Guardian UK):
Infrastructure and education in poor mining regions among targets of funding, as well as repurposing of lands and power plant sites for other industries.
- Senator Bernie Sanders: To Battle Global Warming, We Must Pick Clean Energy As A ‘Winner’ (Climate Progress)
- Yes, US Media, Climate Change Is a National Security Issue:
- VIDEO: Paris, Climate, Refugees, and Terror (Climate Crocks):
As the world comes to grips with the implications of this week’s massacres in Paris, the issue on everyone’s mind is how, in the face of building pressure from war torn and climate pressured regions, nation states in the temperate zones can maintain economic prosperity, security and even national identity.
- Why Bernie Sanders Was Right To Link Climate Change To National Security (Climate Progress):
The nations of the world must work together to address the biggest threat to our security. Yes, terrorism and the Islamic State (ISIS) are grave threats. But if COP21 were to fail, then conflicts like the Syrian civil war will become more common, along with disasters that war helped spawn, including ISIS and the refugee crisis….The study, “Climate change in the Fertile Crescent and implications of the recent Syrian drought,” found that global warming made Syria’s 2006 to 2010 drought two to three times more likely.
- A closer look at the link between climate change and violence (Vox.com) [emphasis added]:
I’d say Sanders’ reply was a little oversimplified “” but the outraged reaction to it was absurd. The truth about climate change and conflict is more complex and nuanced than a short sound bite can allow, but it’s foolish to dismiss the entire topic out of hand.
- Bernie Is Absolutely Right: Climate Change Makes Terrorism Worse (Slate)
- New Study Says Climate Change Helped Spark Syrian Civil War (Slate) [emphasis added]:
“It’s a pretty convincing climate fingerprint,” said Retired Navy Rear Adm. David Titley, a meteorologist who’s now a professor at Penn State University. After decades of poor water policy, “there was no resilience left in the system.” Titley says, given that context, that the record-setting drought caused Syria to “break catastrophically.”…The study’s authors are clear that global warming did not directly cause Syria’s civil war””it took a mix of underlying social vulnerability and an antagonistic government to do that.
- NY Gov. Cuomo Vetoes Natural Gas Project in Favor of Offshore Wind Farm:
- AUDIO: ‘Huge Victory’ for the Climate in NY – ‘BradCast’ 11/13/2015 (The BRAD BLOG)
- Gov. Cuomo Vetoes LNG Terminal, Making Room for Offshore Wind Power in New York (NRDC Switchboard) [emphasis added]:
The governor’s veto puts an end to the ill-conceived Port Ambrose project… the project would have effectively blocked development of the state’s significant offshore wind power resources in this area.
- VIDEO: Governor Cuomo Vetoes Port Ambrose Liquefied Natural Gas Project (Office of the New York Governor) [emphasis added]:
“Security in the old fashioned security, where we have terrorists groups that are springing up more and more, almost on a daily basis, who look for targets of opportunity where there is a potential to do a significant amount of damage…. Hurricane Sandy ““ we know what it’s like to deal with firsts. To have on top of that, an LNG plant, with a pipeline, with thousand-foot tankers out there unloading, for me, increases exponentially the concern and the threat you would have to worry about with another hurricane or flood like Hurricane Sandy”.
- Offshore natural gas pipeline project vetoed by N.Y. Gov. Cuomo (Newark Star-Ledger)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- So You Want to Be a Polar Bear Wrangler? (The Tyee):
The job in Churchill, Manitoba keeps getting harder, thanks to climate change.
- Canada’s Trudeau Orders Tanker Ban on B.C. North Coast (Environment News Service):
Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today instructed his incoming cabinet members to work together to ‘formalize a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s north coast.’
- Antibiotics in Animal Feed May Endanger Kids, Doctors Warn (Reuters):
Overuse of antibiotics in animal feed is making it harder for doctors to treat life-threatening infections in young children, a report from U.S. pediatricians warns.
- New Map of Earth’s Groundwater To Help Estimate When It May Run Out (Thomson Reuters Foundation):
The first map showing the world’s hidden groundwater was published on Monday, bringing us closer to estimating how much there is, and when it will run out if we over-use the resource.
- Minigrids Seen as Fix for 620 Million Africans Without Power (Bloomberg):
Power grids that work at a fraction of the scale of a traditional utility have gained support from banks and developers as a way to bring power to the 620 million people across Africa that lack access to electricity.
- Brazil’s Slow-Motion Environmental Catastrophe Unfolds (Guardian UK):
Nine people are now confirmed dead, and a further 19 remain unaccounted for as a slow-motion environmental catastrophe continues to unfold following the collapse of two mining dams in Brazil’s mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais.
- Beyond what #Exxonknew, refineries face flooding dangers (ClimateWire):
Two of Exxon’s biggest refineries, in Beaumont and Baytown, Texas, are in low-lying areas that are already prone to flooding, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And they’re in a section of coastline that, projections show, could see faster sea-level rise than Miami Beach, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to routine floods and surges from tropical storms and hurricanes.
- Manure From Millions of Hogs Fuels Natural Gas Project (AP):
One recipe for renewable natural gas goes: Place manure from about 2 million hogs in lagoons, cover them with an impermeable material and let it bake until gas from the manure rises. Then, use special equipment to clean the gas of its impurities and ship the finished product out.
- Half of Surveyed Oil Train Bridges Are Deteriorating, Report Says (Al Jazeera America):
Waterkeeper Alliance surveyed 250 bridges used by trains carrying volatile crude oil; there are more than 100K in the US.
- Indonesia Says Forest Fires Could Be Back in Weeks (Reuters):
Indonesia’s forest fires, which this year sent vast plumes of smoke across the region described by climate officials as a ‘crime against humanity’, could return as early as February, the forestry minister said on Friday, but on not such a large scale.
- Exxon, Keystone, and the Turn Against Fossil Fuels (Bill McKibben, The New Yorker] [emphasis added]:
T]he fossil-fuel industry””which, for two centuries, underwrote our civilization and then became its greatest threat””has started to take serious hits…. There is, now, an elsewhere to head…. Inevitability was their shield, but no longer. If we wanted to transform our energy supply, we clearly could, though it would require an enormous global effort.The fossil-fuel industry will, of course, do everything it can to slow that effort down; even if the tide has begun to turn, that industry remains an enormously powerful force, armed with the almost infinite cash that has accumulated in its centuries of growth.
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.
More bad “science” showed up this week (Questionable “Scientific” Papers).