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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Democratic candidates debate in Flint, and call for Michigan’s governor to resign over lead poisoning crisis; Clinton and Sanders differ on fracking; Corporate media coverage of climate change is declining; PLUS: Five years after historic quake and tsunami, the Fukushima nuclear disaster continues… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
3/8/2016
‘Green News Report’ – March 8, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – March 8, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Honduras: Environmentalist Berta Caceres Murdered; Power Grab Topples Another Defender Of California’s Environment; Pits Of Drilling Waste Threaten Water, Air Safety in CA; Toxic Passaic River to Get $1.38 Billion Cleanup Over 10 Years; Divide Grows in Southeast Over Offshore Drilling Plan; U.S. Proposes Lifting Protections For Yellowstone-Area Grizzlies; Duke Energy Cited For Leaky Coal Ash Ponds… PLUS: Amazonian Tribe In Peru Takes Hostages After Oil Spill… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Democratic Presidential Debate in Flint:
- Transcript: The Democrats’ debate in Flint, annotated (Washington Post)
- Flint Wins the Democratic Debate (The Atlantic)
- Democratic Candidates Call For Michigan Governor Snyder’s Resignation (Think Progress)
- Democratic debate: Clinton, Sanders call for Gov. Snyder’s resignation over Flint water crisis (MLive)
- Senator Mike Lee defends delay of Flint aid bill, says Michigan has ‘large rainy-day fund’ (CNN)
- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Tweets up a Storm After Democratic Candidates Call for His Resignation (ABC News)
- Class Action Suit Filed By Residents Over Flint Water Crisis (AP):
A lawsuit stemming from Flint’s lead-contaminated water was filed Monday on behalf of the city’s residents against Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder as well as other current and former government officials and corporations.
- Democratic Candidates Differ On Fracking:
- VIDEO: On Fracking, Clinton And Sanders Give Vastly Different Answers (Climate Progress)
- Democrats debate: Hillary allows for some potential fracking (CNN)
- Democratic debate: Clinton, Sanders spar over fracking, gun control, trade and jobs (Washington Post)
- Corporate Media Coverage on Climate Change Declines:
- STUDY: How Broadcast Networks Covered Climate Change In 2015 (Media Matters):
The decline was primarily driven by ABC, whose climate coverage dropped by 59 percent; the only network to dramatically increase its climate coverage was Fox, but that increase largely consisted of criticism of efforts to address climate change.
- During The Most Important Year For Climate News, TV Coverage Fell (Guardian UK):
A report by Media Matters for America reveals that the media are failing to inform the American public on the most important issue of our time.
- Bernie and Hillary Have Major Differences on Climate. If Only the Debate Moderators Would Ask. (Slate)
- 5th Anniversary of Fukushima Triple Disasters:
- Problems Keep Piling Up in Fukushima (Steve Herman, Voice of America)
- My KPFK Interview with VOA Asia Bureau Chief Steve Herman: Latest out of Fukushima & Tokyo (The BradCast, 3/23/11):
‘Neutron beams,’ water ‘panic,’ black smoke and the responses from TEPCO, the government and the people of Japan, LIVE from Tokyo…
- Crippled Fukushima Reactors Are Still a Danger, 5 Years after the Accident (Scientific American):
Japan’s citizens, and scientists worldwide, do not have answers to basic health and environment questions
- Five years later, Fukushima’s contamination is slow to fade (Ars Technica)
- See The Fukushima Disaster Zone Then And Now: Images show the road to recovery five years after the devastating tsunami. (Huffington Post)
- Japan Indicts 3 Former Executives Over Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (NY Times)
- Fukushima: Tokyo was on the brink of nuclear catastrophe, admits former prime minister (Telegraph UK):
Five years on from the tsunami, the former Japanese prime minister says the country came within a “paper-thin margin” of a nuclear disaster.
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Honduras: Environmentalist Berta Caceres Shot Dead (Al Jazeera America):
Honduran environmentalist leader and winner of the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize Berta Caceres has been shot dead at her home in the town of La Esperanza. Caceres was killed early on Thursday by two assailants who broke into her home, a member of her group, the Indian Council of People’s Organizations of Honduras, said.
- Power Grab Topples Another Defender Of California’s Environment (LA Times):
It was like a sequel to a bad movie. One month after I watched the California Coastal Commission whack the executive whose career was devoted to preserving and assuring equal access to the state’s greatest treasure, I went to Diamond Bar on Friday to watch another massacre. This time the target was a man with more than three decades of experience fighting smog and improving public health in a region with some of the dirtiest air in the nation.
- Toxic Passaic River to Get $1.38 Billion Cleanup Over 10 Years (NY Times):
State and federal officials Friday announced a plan to clean up more than a century’s worth of toxic pollution from the lower eight miles of the Passaic river, in one of the largest and most expensive projects under EPA’s 35-year-old Superfund program.
- DEQ Cites Duke For Leaky Coal Ash Ponds (AP):
The state Department of Environmental Quality on Friday issued violations against Duke Energy for allowing wastewater to leak from coal ash basins at 12 facilities.
- Obama Administration Pays Out $500 Million To Climate Change Project (Guardian UK):
“The Obama administration has made a first installment on its $3 billionn pledge to help poor countries fight climate change ““ defying Republican opposition to the president’s environmental plan.
- Amazonian Tribe In Peru Takes Hostages After Oil Spill (Reuters):
An indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon took at least eight public officials hostage to demand help from the central government after an oil spill polluted its lands, authorities said Monday.
- Pits Of Drilling Waste Threaten Water, Air Safety, Report Charges (SF Chronicle):
Hundreds of open pits containing toxic waste produced by oil and gas drilling are threatening groundwater in California, and regulators have failed to protect drinking and irrigation water supplies from the danger, an environmental watchdog group concludes in a report set to be released Monday.
- Divide Grows in Southeast Over Offshore Drilling Plan (NY Times):
On a recent frigid night, anxious residents, many in “Protect Our Coast” sweatshirts, packed the town hall here, spilled onto the lawn, and then erupted in cheers as their town government gaveled in a resolution urging President Obama to block oil drilling off their shoreline. “Some things are just too precious to risk,” Mayor Emilie Swearingen said.
- Senate Approves Pipeline Safety Bill (The Hill):
The Senate has approved a bill overhauling federal energy pipeline rules and reauthorizing the main agency overseeing pipeline safety in a vote Thursday.
- U.S. Proposes Lifting Protections For Yellowstone-Area Grizzlies (Reuters:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed on Thursday stripping Endangered Species Act protections from the grizzly bear in and around Yellowstone National Park, saying the animal’s numbers have rebounded sufficiently in recent decades.
- Climate Deniers’ Favorite Temperature Dataset Just Confirmed Global Warming (Climate Progress):
February smashed monthly global temperature records, according to the satellite data analyzed by the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH). At the same time, a brand new study concludes that miscalculations explain why the Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) satellite temperature dataset had appeared to show a relatively slow rate of global warming.
- Want to fight climate change? Here are the 7 critical life changes you should make (Grist) [emphasis added]:
So, given the imperfections of this world, what is a lone wolf such as yourself to do? Here are some conclusions gleaned from this study: 1. Buy the most fuel-efficient car you can afford, then drive it as little as possible….
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.
Great job Des !