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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Bernie Sanders slams Republicans on climate change denial after landslide New Hampshire win; In unprecedented move, U.S. Supreme Court halts historic new emissions standards for power plants — for now; U.N. moves ahead anyway on emissions standards for the airline industry; PLUS: Heat wave in the Arctic, as winter sea ice hits lowest extent ever recorded… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
2/11/2016
‘Green News Report’ – February 11, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – February 11, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Supreme Court’s climate stay may imperil Paris Climate Accord; Wall St.’s Water: hedge fund manager betting on water in the West; Oregon Standoff occupiers say they’ll turn themselves in; House passes bill forcing EPA to move faster on lead-tainted water; Snyder ordered DEQ to withhold Flint lead test results; Flint E-Mails: CDC voiced concerns over Legionnaires’ actions; Dengue Fever an ’emergency’ on Hawaii’s Big Island… PLUS: Microbead pollution harms oysters, ocean’s ecosystem engineers… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Bernie Sanders Slams Republican Climate Science Denial After Landslide NH Win:
- VIDEO: Bernie Sanders Victory Speech, NH Primary (Raw Story),/li>
- VIDEO: Hillary Clinton Concession Speech, NH Primary (Huffington Post)
- Clinton and Sanders Spar Over Climate, But Voters Probably Don’t Give a Hoot (Wired),/li>
- Unprecedented: Supreme Court Issues Stay on Landmark ‘Clean Power Plan’ Standards:
- BREAKING: The Supreme Court Just Gave The Finger To Obama’s Plan To Slow Climate Change (Climate Progress):
Given the complexity of this case and the Supreme Court’s schedule, Tuesday evening’s order could easily delay the rules until after President Obama leaves office — if they get to go into effect at all.
- The Supreme Court just put a crucial part of Obama’s climate plan on hold (Vox.com),/li>
- Supreme Court freezes Obama plan to limit carbon emissions (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
The court’s decision does not address the merits of the challenge but indicates justices think the states have raised serious questions….The stay means that questions about the legality of the program will remain after Obama leaves office.
- The Decision to Halt the Implementation of the Clean Power Plan is Outrageous (Legal Planet):
[T]he Court has never done what it did today: stop a regulation from going into effect before any court had determined its legality. Moreover, the Court did so even though the states and industry groups challenging the regulation did not have a strong case. Here’s why.
- President Obama’s Climate Action Plan (White House.gov):
The United States is leading global efforts to address the threat of climate change. On December 12, 2015, President Obama and world leaders secured a global agreement to combat climate change.
- Our Climate Progress Will Not Be Stayed (NRDC):
The U.S. Supreme Court has delayed implementation of the Clean Power Plan, but the ruling doesn’t stop climate action.
- United Nations Proposes First-Ever Airline Emissions Standards:
- U.N. Agency Proposes Limits on Airlines’ Carbon Emissions (NY Times):
After more than six years of negotiations, the global aviation industry agreed on Monday to the first binding limits on carbon dioxide emissions, tackling the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas pollution.
- Countries Embrace New Rules to Limit Airline Emissions (Climate Central):
The new standards are even more important as climate change warms the atmosphere, forcing aircraft to deal with more violent turbulence and increasing flight times and weight restrictions.
- U.N. panel proposes historic cuts to aircraft emissions — but environmentalists say it’s not enough (Washington Post)
- Arctic Winter Sea Ice Hits Lowest Extent On Record:
- Unusually warm Arctic winter stuns scientists with record low ice extent for January (Mashable):
Nothing is as it should be for this time of year across a wide swath of the Arctic. Alaska has had not yet had a winter, with record warmth enveloping much of the state along with anemic snow depth….”For the Arctic this is definitely the strangest winter I’ve ever seen,” said Mark Serreze, the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, which tracks sea and land ice around the world.
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Supreme Court’s Climate Stay May Imperil Paris Climate Accord (NY times):
The Supreme Court’s surprise decision Tuesday to halt the carrying out of President Obama’s climate change regulation could weaken or even imperil the international global warming accord reached with great ceremony in Paris less than two months ago, climate diplomats say.
- Liquid Assets: Maverick hedge fund manager betting on water in the West. (Pro Publica):
Deane looks at the drought, the perennial mismanagement of water in the American West, and the region’s growing population, and believes a reckoning is coming. Rising demand and shrinking supply virtually guarantee that water’s value will increase. Anticipating that day, he’s racing to buy up as much of it as he can.
- Occupiers At Oregon Refuge Say They’ll Turn Themselves In (AP):
The last four armed occupiers of a national wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon said they would turn themselves in Thursday morning after law officers surrounded them in a tense standoff.
- House Passes Bill Requiring EPA Actions On Lead-Laced Water (Reuters):
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday easily passed a bill requiring federal environmental regulators to act faster when lead contamination is found in drinking water.
- Snyder Ordered DEQ To Withhold Flint Lead Test Results, Emails Claim (MLive):
Gov. Rick Snyder and other state officials allegedly withheld lead testing results from county health officials while they worked to find ways to present the information to the public, according to emails obtained by The Flint Journal.
- Flint E-Mails: CDC Voiced Concerns Over Legionnaires’ Actions (Detroit Free Press):
More than eight months before Gov. Rick Snyder disclosed a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the Flint area, federal health officials worried a lack of cooperation in Michigan could be hampering the public health response.
- Dengue Fever an ‘Emergency’ on Hawaii’s Big Island (Environmental News Service):
Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi has declared a state of emergency over a dengue fever outbreak on the island of Hawaii, commonly called the Big Island.
- Microbead Pollution Harms Oysters, Ocean’s Ecosystem Engineers: Study (LA Times):
Oysters eat by filtering the water around them and digesting anything small enough to trap, whether that’s algae, phytoplankton — or tiny pieces of plastic floating in the ocean.
- Maine Rail Cargo Secrecy Law Bypassed Public Access, Safety Defenses (Bangor Daily News):
After a runaway oil train killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, just miles from the Maine border in 2013, Mainers demanded to know more about the state’s railways.
- City Fails To Warn Chicagoans About Lead Risks In Tap Water (Chicago Tribune):
More than two years after federal researchers found high levels of lead in homes where water mains had been replaced or new meters installed, city officials still do little to caution Chicagoans about potential health risks posed by work that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is speeding up across the city.
- CA Coastal Commissioners Vote 7-5 To Dismiss Executive Director (LA Times):
In a 7-5 vote, the California Coastal Commission on Wednesday dismissed embattled executive director Charles Lester.
- New Study Ties Fracking Water Disposal To California Earthquakes (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
According to the new study, which tied a set of 2005 earthquakes near Bakersfield, Calif., to wastewater disposal, injection wells can potentially cause earthquakes several kilometers away, both in the short term and months or even years after the injections take place. The earthquakes studied in the recent report occurred roughly five miles from the injection sites. Bakersfield, in Kern County, is roughly 50 miles from the San Andreas Fault.
- Duke Energy Fined $6.6 Million For Massive Coal Waste Spill (Climate Progress):
Frank Holleman, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said that seeing Duke fined for the disaster isn’t the main thing his group is concerned about. …”There are seven sites in North Carolina that could face another Dan River disaster, and we need the DEQ to act to prevent another disaster, rather than only issue a fine after a disaster,” he said.
- Sea-Level Rise ‘Could Last Twice As Long As Human History’ (Guardian UK):
Huge sea-level rises caused by climate change will last far longer than the entire history of human civilisation to date, according to new research, unless the brief window of opportunity of the next few decades is used to cut carbon emissions drastically.
- Record Warmth `Almost Certainly’ Due to Humans, Scientists Say (Bloomberg):
The odds are “vanishingly small” that recent years of record warmth aren’t due to human emissions of greenhouse gases, researchers in the U.S. and Germany said, adding to pressure on world governments to cut back on fossil fuel use.
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.
“Unprecedented: Supreme Court Issues Stay on Landmark ‘Clean Power Plan’ Standards”
There are questionable legal decisions and there are questionable scientific papers (Questionable Scientific Papers – 6).