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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: New report finds 3,000 American communities have high levels of lead contamination in children; Tap water now safe to use in Corpus Christi after acid accident; Interior Department races to protect drinking water from coal mining pollution; PLUS: Scientists rally to protect scientific integrity and research in the coming Trump Administration… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
12/20/2016
‘Green News Report’ – December 20, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – December 20, 2016 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): I’m a scientist who has gotten death threats. I fear what may happen under Trump; Massive 2013 Oil Spill In North Dakota Still Not Cleaned Up; Advanced Black Lung Cases Surge In Appalachia; U.S. Blocks Mine Planned Near Boundary Waters in Minnesota; Feds Withheld Key Documents From Standing Rock Sioux; U.S. To Give 30-Year Wind Farm Permits; Thousands Of Eagle Deaths Seen; California approves first US energy efficiency standards for computers; Michigan loses court case to stop home water deliveries due to lead… PLUS: This Just Became the World’s Cheapest Form of Electricity Out of Nowhere… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- 3,000 American communities have higher rates of lead poisoning than Flint, MI:
- The thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint (Retuers):
A Reuters examination of lead testing results across the country found almost 3,000 areas with poisoning rates far higher than in the tainted Michigan city. Yet many of these lead hotspots are receiving little attention or funding.
- VIDEO: Children suffer from lead poisoning in 3,000 U.S. neighborhoods (CBS News)
- Texas: Corpus Christi tap water now safe to use:
- Tap Water In Corpus Christi Is Safe, Authorities Say (NPR):
The water ban had been in effect since Dec. 14, when the city notified residents that possible chemical contamination could make the water unsafe to drink or bathe in.
- No chemicals found yet, investigation sent to AG (Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
- Interior Dept. races to protect streams from coal mining pollution:
- Coal Country Reacts to Stream Protection Rule (WV Public Broadcasting):
The Obama Administration’s Department of Interior finalized rule aims to protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests – mostly affecting Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. It maintains a buffer zone rule that blocks mining within 100 feet of streams, and imposes stricter policies that require companies to restore land to pre-mining conditions.
- Obama sets rule to protect streams near coal mines (AP)
- Scientists rally to protect U.S. scientific research and integrity:
- Scientists take to the streets, and the world pays attention (Climate Truth)
- VIDEO: Stand up for Science Rally, AGU 2016, San Francisco: (ClimateTruth)
- VIDEO: A conversation with Jerry Brown (American Geophysical Union):
“If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellites,” Brown said. “Rick, I’ve got some news for you: California’s growing a hell of a lot faster than Texas. And we’ve got more sun than you’ve got oil.”
- Jerry Brown strikes defiant tone: ‘California will launch its own damn satellite’ (Sacramento Bee)
- Inside the largest Earth science event: ‘The time has never been more urgent’ (Guardian UK):
With Trump set to have a ‘chilling effect’ on environmental policy, 20,000 Earth and space scientists met in California to face up to a new responsibility
- Scientists are Saving Climate Data; This Is Why it Matters (Climate Central):
“These are products funded by taxpayers who own the intellectual property and should be granted unfettered access,” said Ryan Maue, a meteorologist who works at the private weather firm WeatherBell and is an adjunct scholar at the conservative Cato Institute.
- Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump (Washington Post)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- I’m a scientist who has gotten death threats. I fear what may happen under Trump. (Washington Post):
I’ve faced hostile investigations by politicians, demands for me to be fired from my job, threats against my life and even threats against my family… with the coming Trump administration, my colleagues and I are steeling ourselves for a renewed onslaught of intimidation, from inside and outside government. It would be bad for our work and bad for our planet.
- Massive 2013 Oil Spill In North Dakota Still Not Cleaned Up (AP):
Three years and three months later, a massive oil spill in North Dakota still isn’t fully cleaned up. The company responsible hasn’t even set a date for completion.
- Advanced Black Lung Cases Surge In Appalachia (NPR)
- This Just Became the World’s Cheapest Form of Electricity Out of Nowhere (Fortune):
According to Bloomberg’s analysis, the cost of solar power in China, India, Brazil and 55 other emerging market economies has dropped to about one third of its price in 2010. This means solar now pips wind as the cheapest form of renewable energy””but is also outperforming coal and gas.
- U.S. Blocks Mine Planned Near Boundary Waters in Minnesota (NY Times):
The Obama administration on Thursday blocked development of a copper and nickel mine near a popular wilderness area in northern Minnesota, saying the project could poison the vast web of lakes, streams and wetlands that crosshatch the region.
- AGU Fall Meeting Day 1 ““ Education And Science Outreach (The Real Skeptic):
Communicating science is not the same as doing science. You use a different toolkit for communicating science to a lay audience than the one you would use fora technical audience. For scientists you include all the technicalities and caveats. But don’t do that for a lay audience as they interpret it as uncertainty and it causes doubt no matter how established the findings are.
- Feds Withheld Key Documents From Standing Rock Sioux (High Country News):
The Army made a stunning admission earlier this month when it announced its decision to require a deeper environmental review and more extensive consultation before deciding whether to grant an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline.
- U.S. To Give 30-Year Wind Farm Permits; Thousands Of Eagle Deaths Seen (Reuters):
Wind farms will be granted 30-year U.S. government permits that could allow for thousands of accidental eagle deaths due to collisions with company turbines, towers and electrical wires, U.S. wildlife managers said on Wednesday.
- Michigan loses court case to stop home water deliveries due to lead (Reuters):
“Although there may be no known precedent for the door-to-door delivery of bottled water, there is also no precedent for the systematic infrastructure damage to a water delivery system that has caused thousands of people to be exposed to poisonous water,” circuit judges Damon Keith and Bernice Donald wrote in Friday’s opinion.
- California approves first US energy efficiency standards for computers (The Verge):
California became the first state in the US to approve energy efficiency requirements for laptops, desktops, and monitors today, in a change that could ultimately impact computers’ energy efficiency across the country.
- Oil And Gas Industry Is Quickly Amassing Power In Trump’S Washington (Washington Post):
After eight years of being banished and sometimes vilified by the Obama administration, the fossil fuel industry is enjoying a remarkable resurgence as its executives and lobbyists shape President-elect Donald Trump’s policy agenda and staff his administration.
- Warm ocean water is melting East Antarctica’s largest glacier (Mashable):
“Measurements showed that the base of the ice shelf is melting rapidly. Assessment of possible energy sources gave high confidence that the ocean is responsible, which requires a strong inflow of relatively warm waters, with geophysical data indicating a likely path for that inflow,” Alley said.
- 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
“I’m a scientist who has gotten death threats.”
His latest book explains where the threats are coming from (Etiology of Social Dementia – 15).
It’s grimly amusing to see the Right head off down the path of mistaking an eked-out win in the Electoral College (obscured by some truly screwed-up goings on with the electoral infrastructure in some states), a majority by two in the Senate and a House majority maintained strictly by the severe gerrymandering of 2010… all as some sort of overwhelming annihilation of the Left in America… and a mandate to destroy all government regulation and stop all government research.
And with a lopsided popular vote loss the person at the top has zero popular mandate to do those things either.
Those are facts, albeit inconvenient ones for the Right-wing narrative being blasted from Fox News for the past month.
Yes, the Dems screwed up and they paid dearly for their addiction to Post-Reagan corporatism, as will we all, but this isn’t going to end well for anyone on this planet.
It’s true that whatever the GOP is becoming has control of the Federal government but now they have to act… and what they’ve elected to do is to dismantle the government of over 300 million people.
No, that’s not exaggeration. That’s the plan. They’ve been hampering government severely but now that they can take it all down they’re already writing the bills to do just that.
And that includes all government regulation and, as of yesterday, all government research.
The problem is that the GOP have all immersed themselves in their Ayn Randian fantasies for so long, they’ve drifted so far down that vortex of extremism they’ve been circling, that even the less fervent among them can’t stop the true believers from hitting the big shiny red “DESTRUCT” button…
And this all will be made much worse by the fact that the person now at the top is an unqualified and autocratic oligarch with zero experience in the responsibilities of government… and that’s the kindest description possible.
And then the electorate will be reminded, yet again, of the simple and inexorable fact that in most things they actually agree more with the left than the right.
zapkitty:
Too bad that won’t fit on a protest sign, because that’s the one I’d be carrying.
“… Gas Industry Is Quickly Amassing Power In Trump’S Washington” – link upthread
Make flatulence great again (Once Upon A Time In The West – 2).