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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: United Nations landmark climate agreement reaches crucial threshold to enactment; White House orders federal agencies to account for climate change impacts in national security planning; Good news and bad news in the Arctic; PLUS: President Obama tells the world to put its money where its mouth is… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 9/22/2016

‘Green News Report’ – September 22, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – September 22, 2016  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Coal’s Last Gamble: A choking industry bets on one more big score; SEC Probes Exxon Over Accounting for Climate Change; Greenland’s huge annual ice loss is even worse than thought; Trump’s plan to seize Iraq’s oil: ‘It’s not stealing, we’re reimbursing ourselves’; Canada Will Impose Nationwide Carbon Price: Minister; New study undercuts favorite climate myth ‘more CO2 is good for plants’; California governor backs new limits on cow farts and landfill emissions… PLUS: Hundreds of U.S. scientists slam Trump for threatening to abandon Paris climate accord… and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• White House orders national security agencies to include climate impacts in planning:
  • For the first time, Obama requires U.S. government to factor climate into national security policy (Washington Post):
    Under the directive, 20 federal agencies and offices that work on climate science, intelligence and national security must “collaborate to ensure the best information on climate impacts is available to strengthen our national security” through the new Federal Climate and National Security Working Group.
  • FACT SHEET: President Obama Takes A Historic Step To Address The National Security Implications Of Climate Change (White House)

• Report: Climate change is a threat to national security:
• 2016: Implications for US National Security of Anticipated Climate Change [PDF] (National Intelligence Council, Director of National Intelligence):
  These effects will be especially pronounced as populations continue to concentrate in climate-vulnerable locales such as coastal areas, water-stressed regions, and ever-growing cities. These effects are likely to pose significant national security challenges for the United States over the next two decades, though models forecast the most dramatic effects further into the future.
• Climate change is already destabilizing communities worldwide, report warns (Mashable) [emphasis added]:
  The U.S. intelligence community on Wednesday released a new report finding that global warming is already acting as a destabilizing force worldwide, with more serious ramifications to come in the next two decades…The NIC report provides more detailed information on how climate change will likely pose national security challenges for the U.S. during the next 20 years, raising the possibility that climate change-related impacts could cause entire countries to collapse.
• It’s official: Climate change is a threat to our national security. (The New Republic
• Report Cites National Security Risks From Climate Change (AP)
• United Nations climate agreement reaches crucial threshold:
• Paris climate agreement poised to come into force (Guardian UK):
  UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, predicts global climate deal will be fully ratified by the end of the year after 31 nations officially sign up in New York…The pledges mean that a total of 60 countries, representing 47.7% of global emissions, have now formally joined the Paris agreement. The deal aims to limit the global temperature rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration of keeping it to 1.5C.
• VIDEO: President Obama addresses the UN General Assembly (NY Times)
• Transcript: Address by President Obama to the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (White House)
• Paris Climate Deal Passes Milestone as 20 More Nations Sign On (NY Times):
  “If enough countries start implementing the Paris agreement, historians will see this as a watershed moment,” said Erik Solheim, director of the United Nations environment program. “But if we don’t implement it, this will just be bringing a bunch of politicians together around a piece of paper.”
• Bank of America, Apple and Amalgamated Bank join RE100 at Climate Week NYC with goals for going 100% renewable (RE100)
• Global wheat production to decline with higher temperatures from climate change:
• Wheat, one of the world’s most important crops, is being threatened by climate change (Washington Post):
  After comparing multiple studies used to predict the future of global crop production, researchers have found that they all agree on one point: rising temperatures are going to be really bad for wheat production….Specifically, all the techniques suggested that a global temperature increase of 1 degree Celsius would lead to a worldwide decline in wheat yield by between 4.1 and 6.4 percent.
• Warming likely to reduce wheat yields, study says (World Grain Daily)
• Climate change means land use will need to change to keep up with global food demand, say scientists (Science Daily):
  A new study led by researchers from the University of Birmingham shows that much of the land currently used to grow wheat, maize and rice is vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
• The Arctic is still melting: 2nd lowest sea ice extent on record
• Arctic Sea Ice Annual Minimum Ties Second Lowest on Record (NASA)
• Arctic sea ice shrinks to second lowest level ever recorded (Guardian UK):
  ‘Tremendous loss’ of ice reinforces clear downward trend towards ice-free summers due to effects of climate change…Even though this year didn’t set a record, “we have reinforced the overall downward trend. There is no evidence of recovery here,” Serreze said. “We’ve always known that the Arctic is going to be the early warning system for climate change. What we’ve seen this year is reinforcing that.”

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• Coal’s Last Gamble: A choking industry bets on one more big score (Grist):
  This is the place where a coal company backed by a wealthy Texas family – one whose fabled legacy of gambling on energy markets extends back to a game of cards with an oil rig at stake – wants to sink a 300-foot-deep coal mine over 30 square miles of wetlands and forest…If the project goes forward, it would all but obliterate Tyonek tribe’s fishing and hunting grounds.
• Hundreds of U.S. scientists slam Trump for threatening to abandon Paris climate accord (Washington Post)
• SEC Probes Exxon Over Accounting for Climate Change (Wall St. Journal):
  The probe also examines company’s practice of not writing down the value of oil and gas reserves.
• Greenland’s huge annual ice loss is even worse than thought (Guardian UK):
  This means the rapid ice loss recorded by satellite measurements over the last 20 years is not likely to be a blip, but part of a long-term trend being exacerbated by climate change. Global warming is driving major melting on the surface of Greenland’s glaciers and is speeding up their travel into the sea.
• Trump’s plan to seize Iraq’s oil: ‘It’s not stealing, we’re reimbursing ourselves’ (Guardian UK):
  “In international law, you can’t take civilian goods or seize them. That would amount to a war crime,” Anthony Cordesman, the Arleigh Burke chair in strategy at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “Oil exports were almost the only Iraqi source of money. So you would have to pay for government salaries, maintain the army, and you have triggered a level of national animosity far worse than we did. It would be the worst kind of neo-colonialism. Not even Britain did that.”
• Canada Will Impose Nationwide Carbon Price: Minister (Reuters):
  Canada will impose a carbon price on provinces that do not adequately regulate emissions by themselves, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said on Sunday without giving details on how the Liberal government will do so.
• New study undercuts favorite climate myth ‘more CO2 is good for plants’ (Guardian UK):
  A new study…tested whether hotter temperatures and higher carbon dioxide levels that we’ll see post-2050 will benefit the kinds of plants that live in California grasslands. They found that carbon dioxide at higher levels than today (400 ppm) did not significantly change plant growth, while higher temperatures had a negative effect.
• California governor backs new limits on cow and landfill emissions (AP)
• Investor Carl Icahn dumps more than half his stake in gas giant Chesapeake Energy (Bloomberg)
• Appeals court approves Nexus surveyors access to private property (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
• Tesla’s merger with SolarCity may be delayed by lawsuits (Wall St. Journal)
• JetBlue makes biofuels deal to curtail greenhouse gases (NY Times)
• Wind, solar and electric cars are booming. Too bad that’s not enough to stop climate change (Washington Post):
  [I]t’s worth thinking about a new report on global patterns of energy investment – $1.8 trillion worth in 2015 – just released by the International Energy Agency. Because what that report essentially says is that although there’s clear progress, we’re also missing some things. Some very big things.
• Environmental records shattered as climate change ‘plays out before us’ (Guardian UK):
  Temperatures, sea levels and carbon dioxide all hit milestones amid extreme weather in 2015, major international ‘state of the climate’ report finds.

FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).