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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Global protests for action on climate change receive no coverage in corporate media; New evacuations for Fort McMurray fire in Canada’s oil sands country; Obama’s EPA issues new rules to cut the methane; Shell Oil gives the Gulf of Mexico another spill; A win for whales; PLUS: Here we go again: April 2016 was the hottest April ever recorded… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
5/17/2016
‘Green News Report’ – May 16, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – May 16, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): “You Have Been Fooled”: AGU Reopens Exxon Sponsorship Review; Nissan unveils a home battery to take on Tesla’s Powerwall; D.C. Circuit Shifts Plans for Obama Climate Cases; Red tuna crabs carpet Southern California beaches again; U.S. top court rejects Exxon appeal in groundwater contamination case; Nebraska Utility Head Recommends Closing Nuclear Power Plant; Trump’s son woos sportsmen, covets top job at Interior… PLUS: In India’s Drought Crisis, Suicides Increase Among Farmers Deep In Debt… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Fort McMurray Fire: new evacuations ordered:
- Growing wildfire forces evacuation of Fort McMurray oilsands camps (CBC):
A wildfire that destroyed whole sections of Fort McMurray earlier this month has again forced workers to leave all camps up to Ruth Lake, 26 km north of the city, including numerous Noralta work camps.
- VIDEO: Wildfire moving north (CTV)
- Canada wildfire – what are the environmental impacts? (Guardian UK):
In addition to the estimated $9bn damage to Fort McMurray, ‘the beast’ will affect forests, carbon emissions, air and water pollution and waste.
- Could the oil sands catch fire? (MacLean’s):
A 2004 article in the U.S. National Fire Protection Association Journal offered a list of the potential fire risks faced by Suncor Energy, one of the oil sands’ biggest producers. It included: “hydrocarbon spill and pressure fires; storage tank fires; vapour cloud explosions; flammable gas fires; runaway exothermic reactions; and coke and sulfur fires.” The list continued by noting the fire potential posed by: “natural gas- and coke-fired electricity/steam generating plants; a large fleet of mining equipment; ore-processing and oil extraction plants; multi-story office buildings; fleets of tank trucks carrying combustible and hazardous commodities; and the wildlands and boreal forests that surround the facility.”
- April 2016 Hottest April on record — and then some:
- April Breaks Global Temp Record, Marking Seven Months Of New Highs (Guardian UK):
April 2016 was the hottest April on record globally – and the seventh month in a row to have broken global temperature records.
- A Song Of Fire And No Ice: We Just Had Our Fourth Record-Breaking Hottest Month In A Row This Year (Climate Progress)
- Earth just recorded its warmest April on record, and it wasn’t even close (Mashable):
April was the third-most unusually warm month of any month since 1880, NASA found.
- Fractures seen in rapidly melting Arctic sea ice, and it’s only May (Mashable)
- Obama’s EPA issues new rules to cut the methane:
- Obama administration announces historic new regulations for methane emissions from oil and gas (Washington Post):
“It’s a significant step…” added Mark Brownstein, a vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund. But Brownstein also noted that “the United States is the world’s largest oil and gas producer, and along with that comes a lot of equipment in the field. And, therefore, it is only when you have regulations that deal with existing sources that you fully deal with the impact of the industry on the environment.”
- The EPA is cracking down on methane leaks from (new) oil and gas wells (Vox):
[T]he US likely can’t meet its overall climate goals without getting those leaks under control. In January 2015, the White House set a goal of cutting methane emissions from oil and gas operations 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025.
- Study: Bakken Oil Field Leaks 275,000 Tons Of Methane Yearly (AP):
The oil-producing region of North Dakota and Montana leaks 275,000 tons of methane annually, a significant amount of the greenhouse gas but less than previously believed, a study released Wednesday said.
- Environmentalists Hate Fracking. Are They Right? (Mother Jones): The pros and cons of natural gas, explained.
- Break Free 2016: Global protests on 6 continents (but no corporate media coverage):
- Tens of Thousands Worldwide Take Part in Largest Global Civil Disobedience in the History of the Climate Movement (Break Free.org):
Twelve days of unprecedented world-wide action against fossil fuels have just concluded, showing that the climate movement will not rest until all coal, oil and gas is kept in the ground. The combined global efforts of activists on six continents now pose a serious threat to the future of the fossil fuel industry, already weakened by financial and political uncertainty….
- ‘Break Free’ fossil fuel protests deemed ‘largest ever’ global disobedience (Guardian UK):
Australia, South Africa and Indonesia, saw activists call for oil, coal and gas to be kept in the ground. A coalition of environment groups, which called the actions “Break Free”, are pushing for a complete shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
- PHOTOS: Protesters Around The World Target Fossil Fuel Industry (NPR)
- Dozens arrested in Washington state environmental protest (Reuters)
- Halted Oil Trains, Arrests, And Crowds Of Thousands Spread Across 6 Continents In ‘Break Free’ Protest (Climate Progress):
The movement was part of a worldwide effort. Across the globe, tens of thousands of people participated in all six inhabited continents.
- Shell Oil gives a new oil spill to Gulf of Mexico:
- Shell Oil Spill Cleanup Continues, No Impact Yet To Coast, Wildlife (NOLA):
Vessels continued to skim oil off the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday after about 88,200 gallons of oil were released from a Shell flow line about 90 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
- Shell working to repair leak that spilled 2,000 barrels of oil into Gulf of Mexico (Guardian UK):
More than 88,000 gallons of oily-water mixture has been released from the Glider Field, a group of four underwater oil wells located around 97 miles south of Port Fourchon in Louisiana. The company said it suspects a line connecting these wells to a Shell platform leaked oil on Thursday, creating a 13 mile-wide slick on the surface of the water.
- Win for whales in Hawaii:
- A Whale of a Win (NRDC):
The U.S. Navy finally agreed to stop conducting harmful sonar drills in certain areas where whales migrate and breed-it only took two decades’ worth of courtroom battles.
- 24 pilot whales die after beaching in Baja California (AP)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- “You Have Been Fooled”: AGU Reopens Exxon Sponsorship Review After Stinging Letter From Sen. Whitehouse and Rep. Lieu (DeSmogBlog) [emphasis added]:
The letter reads: “We can attest that Exxon’s purported support for a carbon tax is not real. It is impossible to reconcile EM’s stated support for a revenue-neutral carbon tax with the lobbying activities of EM and the trade associations that claim to represent EM on the Hill. What we see in Congress is that their lobbying efforts are 100 percent opposed to any action on climate.”
- Nissan unveils a home battery to take on Tesla’s Powerwall (Mashable):
Nissan announced a new home energy-storage device Monday, made out of recycled batteries sourced from its Leaf electric cars. The xStorage system, which Nissan unveiled at an event in East London and is produced in partnership with power =-management company Eaton, is essentially the company’s answer to Tesla’s Powerwall.
- D.C. Circuit Shifts Plans for Obama Climate Cases; Ruling Unlikely to Come Before Election (Wall St. Journal):
A federal appeals court decision on the legality of Obama administration rules limiting carbon emissions from power plants likely won’t come until after the November election, thanks to a notable scheduling change announced Monday.
- Red tuna crabs carpet Southern California beaches again (Reuters):
The crabs are typically concentrated in Mexican waters off the southern and central Baja Peninsula, but warming currents periodically carry the crustaceans farther north and closer to shore, according to scientists.
- U.S. top court rejects Exxon appeal in groundwater contamination case (Reuters):
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Exxon Mobil Corp’s (XOM.N) appeal of a $236 million judgment against the oil company in a case brought by the state of New Hampshire over groundwater contamination linked to a gasoline additive.
- Trump Turns To Global Warming Denier For Energy Policy Guidance (Reuters):
Donald Trump asked for help is US Representative Kevin Cramer (R) of North Dakota, one of the country’s most ardent oil and gas drilling advocates and climate change skeptics.
- Obama, Nordic Leaders Agree To New Arctic Protections (The Hill):
President Obama and the leaders of five Nordic countries agreed Friday to environmental protections for the Arctic that could restrict oil and gas drilling and other commercial activity there.
- In India’s Drought Crisis, Suicides Increase Among Farmers Deep In Debt (NPR):
Tukaram Jadhav was barely surviving off of his tiny cotton farm when he killed himself last September. His widow, a petite mother of two, pulls her purple sari tightly around her, and says she discovered her husband as he lay dying.
- Nebraska Utility Head Recommends Closing Nuclear Power Plant (AP):
The head of a Nebraska utility recommended shutting down the nation’s smallest nuclear power plant by the end of the year, saying Thursday that it doesn’t make economic sense to keep it open.
- Trump’s son woos sportsmen, covets top job at Interior (E&E News) [emphasis added]
Trump Jr. said he’d like to be the next secretary of the Interior Department, the agency that controls one-fifth of the nation’s landmass and almost all of the oceans…It would use the money it spends defending lawsuits filed by “radical environmental groups” to increase the size of game herds. “I want to change some laws and better invest current money to make our lands more productive, while having fewer wildfires,” he said. “Well-managed lands, with thinned timber, food plots and habitat improvements that help animals would be the goal.”
- Chemical Breakdown, Part 1: Houston: (Houston Chronicle) [emphasis added]:
Just outside Pearland, theater patrons come and go within 200 feet of a warehouse that stockpiles a pesticide so toxic it seeped into a family’s house in Utah and killed two little girls…All over America and across greater Houston, capital of the nation’s petrochemical industry, hundreds of chemicals pose serious threats to public safety at facilities that may be unknown to most neighbors and are largely unpoliced by government at all levels.
- 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
- NASA Video: If we don’t act, here’s what to expect in the next 100 years:
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Reader Comments on
‘Green News Report’ – May 16, 2016
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“Environmentalists Hate Fracking. Are They Right?”
Thankfully, most of them are left.
But too many are still have stardust imparing their vision (The Bathtub Model Doesn’t Hold Water – 2).