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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: North Dakota police escalate tactics against Dakota Access Pipeline protesters; Canada moves to phase out coal electricity by 2030; Record low sea ice in a ‘freakishly warm’ Arctic; PLUS: Obama Administration cancels oil leases on Blackfeet Nation Lands… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
11/22/2016
‘Green News Report’ – November 22, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – November 22, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Thanksgiving advice: How to deal with climate change denying Uncle Pete; NASA Team Claims ‘Impossible’ Space Engine Works-Get the Facts; World’s poorest countries to aim for 100% green energy; Exxon Mobil Accuses the Rockefellers of a Climate Conspiracy; 71 Percent of Americans Support Paris Climate Deal Trump Wants To Dump; EPA Chief: Trump Can’t Halt U.S. Shift To Clean Energy; Trump’s big infrastructure plan? It’s a trap; Bleak Outlook for Trump’s Promises to Coal Miners… PLUS: It’s a pretty good time to catch up on your environmental justice reading. Here’s a helpful list… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Scientists stunned at record low sea ice extent in ‘freakishly warm’ Arctic, Antarctica:
- Crazy Cryosphere: Record Low Sea Ice, An Overheated Arctic, and a Snowbound Eurasia (Weather Underground):
Such dramatic losses rarely occur at the same time, which means that the global total of sea ice coverage is phenomenally low for this time of year. The weirdness extends to midlatitudes: North America as well as the Arctic have been bathed in unusual mildness over the last several weeks, while Eurasia deals with a vast zone of above-average snowfall and below-average temperatures. Let’s look at each of these to see what’s up and where they may (or may not) be related.
- ‘Things are getting weird in the polar regions’ (Washington Post):
As extraordinarily warm temperatures continue in the Arctic “” temperatures tens of degrees Fahrenheit above normal for this time of year in some locations “” Arctic sea ice, a key indicator of the overall state of this system, seems to be responding in kind…”Why Antarctic extent is also very low right now is something we are still puzzling over,” said Serreze.
- Sea ice hits record lows at both poles. What does it mean? (Boston Globe)
- Amid higher global temperatures, sea ice at record lows at poles (CNN)
- North Dakota escalates tactics against Dakota Access Pipeline protesters:
- Standoff still ongoing at Backwater Bridge (Bismarck Tribune)
- 16 Arrested at North Dakota Pipeline Protest (NY Times)
- Dakota Pipeline: Protesters Soaked With Water in Freezing Temperatures (NBC News) [emphasis added]:
Sheriff’s spokesman Rob Keller told NBC News that no water cannon were deployed and that water was sprayed from a fire truck to control fires as they were being set by activists. However, video posted to Facebook by activists clearly showed authorities spray a continuous stream of water over demonstrators in areas where there were no fires.
- Police defend use water cannons on Dakota Access protesters in freezing weather (Washington Post)
- VIDEO: Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe concerned over environmental impact of protest camps (Facebook, Duy Linh Tu)
- North Dakota regulators accuse company of failing to disclose the discovery of Native American sacred artifacts in oil pipeline’s path (Guardian UK)
- CEO behind Dakota Access to protesters: ‘We’re building the pipeline’ (PBS):
[T]he company building the pipeline is pushing back, filing suit in federal court yesterday to get its last permit issued.
- Interior Dept. cancels oil and gas leases on Blackfeet Nation lands:
- VIDEO: Secretary Jewell Announces Milestone with Blackfeet Tribe (Interior Dept.)
- US cancels energy leases in Montana area sacred to Blackfeet (AP):
“It should not have been leased to begin with,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in announcing the cancellations at her agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “This sets the right tone for how business should be done in the future.”
- Obama administration cancels oil and gas leases on Blackfeet tribe’s sacred grounds (Washington Post)
- Interior Dept. bans oil and gas leases in the Arctic, Atlantic Ocean:
- Obama Halts Arctic Oil Leases and Undoing It Won’t Be Simple for Trump (Inside Climate News):
By writing a five-year plan with no leases for oil drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, President Obama-and market forces-provide roadblocks for Trump to change.
- Obama’s Offshore Oil Plan Forces Drillers to Focus on Gulf (Bloomberg)
- Interior Dept. bans new mining leases outside Yellowstone National Park:
- Obama Administration Protects 30,000 Acres from New Mining Claims near Yellowstone National Park (Dept. of Interior)
- Obama administration moves to block mining near Yellowstone (Washington Post):
“There are good places to mine for gold, but the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park is not one of them,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement.
- The Latest: Firm blasts US curbs on mining near Yellowstone (AP)
- Canada plans to ditch coal-fired electricity by 2030:
- VIDEO: Catherine McKenna says Canada will phase out coal power; goal is 90% non-emitting sources and 5mt reduction by 2030 (CPAC-TV)
- Canada plans to phase out coal-powered electricity by 2030 (Guardian UK):
Environment minister’s goal to make 90% of Canada’s electricity come from sustainable sources starkly contrasts Trump’s pledge to revive US coal industry
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Thanksgiving advice: How to deal with climate change denying Uncle Pete (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists):
I know none of you believes these myths, but it seems that almost everybody has an unpleasant relative–call him Uncle Pete–who comes to dinner. Pete spoils the family mood by making these false claims, which he found on talk radio or the Internet. I’ll tell you in a moment why some of the most frequently repeated claims are just plain wrong.
- World’s poorest countries to aim for 100% green energy (BBC):
Representatives from 47 of the world’s most disadvantaged nations have pledged to generate all their future energy needs from renewables. Members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum issued their statement on the last day of the Marrakech climate conference.
- It’s a pretty good time to catch up on your environmental justice reading. (Grist):
It’s a pretty good time to catch up on your environmental justice reading. Here’s a helpful list.
- With a Meeting, Trump Renewed a British Wind Farm Fight (NY Times):
When President-elect Donald J. Trump met with the British politician Nigel Farage in recent days, he encouraged Mr. Farage and his entourage to oppose the kind of offshore wind farms that Mr. Trump believes will mar the pristine view from one of his two Scottish golf courses.
- Exxon Mobil Accuses the Rockefellers of a Climate Conspiracy (NY Times):
Exxon Mobil, under fire over its past efforts to undercut climate science, is accusing the Rockefeller family of masterminding a conspiracy against it. Yes, that Rockefeller family.
- 71 Percent of Americans Support Paris Climate Deal Trump Wants To Dump (Washington Post):
Since the election of Donald Trump as president, climate change has rushed to the front of the news because of Trump’s pledges to wipe away major U.S. attempts to address it. … However, a new survey released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on Monday suggests that if Trump were to withdraw from the agreement, that may not be popular in the United States.
- EPA Chief: Trump Can’t Halt U.S. Shift To Clean Energy (Washington Post):
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday gave an impassioned defense of the Obama administration’s energy and environmental policies and insisted the nation’s shift from fossil fuels will continue no matter who occupies the White House.
- Trump’s big infrastructure plan? It’s a trap. (Washington Post):
First, Trump’s plan is not really an infrastructure plan. It’s a tax-cut plan for utility-industry and construction-sector investors, and a massive corporate welfare plan for contractors. The Trump plan doesn’t directly fund new roads, bridges, water systems or airports, as did Hillary Clinton’s 2016 infrastructure proposal. Instead, Trump’s plan provides tax breaks to private-sector investors who back profitable construction projects.
- NASA Team Claims ‘Impossible’ Space Engine Works-Get the Facts (National Geographic):
Scientists just published a paper saying that the controversial EmDrive produces thrust, even though that defies known laws of physics.
- Hundreds Of Dead Puffins Are Mysteriously Washing Ashore In Alaska (Huffington Post):
Climate change could be driving the seabird to starvation, amid reports of mass puffin die-offs worldwide in recent years.
- A Bleak Outlook for Trump’s Promises to Coal Miners (NY Times):
Donald J. Trump made coal a centerpiece of his campaign, holding rousing rallies with miners in hard hats, who he said had been neglected under eight years of the Obama administration. … Now, though, coal may prove a different sort of symbol “” that is, of the challenges that the president-elect will face delivering on his many promises to restore struggling sectors of the American economy.
- USGS Announces Largest Oil And Gas Deposit Ever Assessed In U.S. (NPR):
The U.S. Geological Survey says a deposit in West Texas is the largest continuous oil and gas deposit ever discovered in the United States.
- Behind “Make America Great,” the Koch Agenda Returns with a Vengeance (Talking Points Memo):
The stage is perfectly set to advance the core Koch ultra-free-market agenda, even though the brothers avoided endorsing Trump and the candidate himself discussed almost none of the relevant policy shifts in his appeals to voters.
- China clarifies for Trump: uh, no, global warming is not a Chinese hoax (Vox):
“If you look at the history of climate change negotiations, actually it was initiated by the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] with the support of the Republicans during the Reagan and senior Bush administration during the late 1980s,” Liu told reporters, according to Bloomberg (which points out that this history is, in fact, correct).
- Rule Would Boost Solar And Wind Energy On Public Lands (Missoulian):
The Obama administration took action Thursday to boost development of solar and wind energy on public lands, part of President Barack Obama’s strategy to develop cleaner domestic energy and reduce emissions blamed for global warming.
- No country on Earth is taking the 2 degree climate target seriously (Vox):
If we mean what we say, no more new fossil fuels, anywhere.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
My friend and yours, the Earth, is in demise (Watching The Arctic Die – 2).