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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Fallout is swift, and global, after Trump abandons Paris Climate Agreement; Even Fox ‘News’ questions the economic case for exiting U.N. climate accord; States and cities step up to fulfill U.S. pledges; PLUS: India announces it will sell only electric cars by 2030… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

6/6/2017

‘Green News Report’ – June 6, 2017  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – June 6, 2017  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): China moves to capitalize on renewable energy after U.S. retreat; California signs clean energy deal with China; Trump to allow seismic testing for oil in Atlantic Ocean; Switching from coal to solar could save 52,000 lives a year; Exxon’s climate accounting a ‘sham’; ‘Wild West’ of deep sea mining underway; Monsanto buries inconvenient data as ‘confidential business information’; Trump supporters worry about solar industry’s prospects… PLUS: How GOP leaders came to view climate change as ‘fake’ science… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Global fallout after Trump’s withdrawal from Paris Agreement:
• France, India To Cooperate In Fighting Climate Change (Reuters):
  French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday their countries would cooperate in the fight against climate change, just days after the U.S. withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.
• What’s at stake in Trump’s decision on the Paris climate agreement (Vox)
• Trump’s Paris Agreement withdrawal is terrible and destructive. The GOP must own the consequences. (Washington Post)
• ‘Climate Change Is Real’: Many U.S. Companies Lament Paris Accord Exit (NY Times)
• Health Experts Are Furious With Trump For Pulling Out of Paris Pact (LA Times):
  Environmentalists aren’t the only ones outraged over President Trump’s decision to have the U.S. walk away from the Paris accord on global warming. Health experts are pretty dismayed as well.
• Trump’s Reasons For Leaving Paris Climate Agreement Just Don’t Add Up (Washington Post):
  President Trump railed against the Paris climate agreement in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, but it was hard to reconcile his description of the climate accord with the real one.
• Trump’s Paris exit gets corporate media to finally cover climate change:
• VIDEO: Pruitt defends decision to withdraw from Paris climate deal; Al Gore weighs in (Fox News)
• AP FACT CHECK: Pruitt blows smoke over coal jobs and climate (AP)
• ‘Aren’t you focusing on the wrong thing?’: Anchors grill EPA administrator over leaving Paris agreement
  Political talk show hosts confronted Pruitt about his assertion that the deal, which 156 nations signed in order to curb emissions that fuel climate change, would be damaging to the American economy.
• Trump’s exit from Paris agreement underscores the media’s catastrophic climate change failure during the campaign (Media Matters) [emphasis added]:
  Media Matters’ latest annual study examining the broadcast networks’ coverage of climate change found that in 2016, evening newscasts and Sunday shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC as well as Fox News Sunday did not air a single segment informing viewers of what to expect on climate change and climate-related policies or issues — including the Paris agreement — under a Trump or Hillary Clinton administration.
• Poll: Nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose Trump’s Paris exit:
• Post-ABC poll: Nearly 6 in 10 oppose Trump scrapping Paris agreement (Washington Post):
  Most oppose Trump decision to withdraw from major climate agreement: Opposition to Trump’s decision outpaces support for it by a roughly 2-to-1 margin, with 59 percent opposing the move and 28 percent in support…The survey also finds broad skepticism toward Trump’s argument that leaving the Paris agreement will benefit the U.S. economy.
• States and cities defy Trump, pledge to meet Paris Agreement targets:
• Bucking Trump, These Cities, States and Companies Commit to Paris Accord (NY Times):
  Representatives of American cities, states and companies are preparing to submit a plan to the United Nations pledging to meet the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Paris climate accord, despite President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement.
• U.S. Climate Alliance Adds 10 New Members to Coalition Committed to Upholding the Paris Accord (Office of the Governor of California)
• Paris pullout: Defiant US Climate Alliance emerges in its wake (CS Monitor)
• States’ ‘Climate Alliance’ raises questions about the Constitution’s interstate compacts clause (Washington Post)
• Pittsburgh’s mayor blasts Trump’s Pittsburgh claim and Paris exit:
• VIDEO: Pittsburgh mayor hits back after Trump invokes city in climate speech (CNN):
  “Pittsburgh is the example,” Peduto said. “We were that city that China is like today where the smoke was so, filled the air so much, that the streetlights would stay on 24 hours.”
• Pittsburgh mayor to Trump: Um, actually we’re pro-Paris Climate Agreement (USA Today)
• Peduto announces executive order on climate change (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette):
  “Where the city can make positive changes in our processes for the benefit of residents, we’re going to. Where we need industry involved, we’re going to find the opportunity to partner, advocate and, where we need to, regulate,” Mr. Peduto said in a statement later.
• Mayor William Peduto Issues Executive Order Committing City to Paris Climate Accords (Office of the Mayor)
• India to sell only electric cars by 2030:
• India will sell only electric cars within the next 13 years (World Economic Forum):
  [B]y ridding India’s roads of petrol and diesel cars in the years ahead, the country will be able to reduce the harmful levels of air pollution that contribute to a staggering 1.2 million deaths per year.
• Investment ‘Lock-ins’ and Technological Advancements in the Energy Sector (India Ministry of Energy):
  The future of global energy is in clean energy. In 2015, for the first time, the addition to power sector capacity by renewable sources exceeded those by all other sources (WEO, 2016). Technological advancements are fast transforming the way energy is produced and consumed. India needs to join the cavalcade of change.
• India to sell only electric cars by 2030 (CNN):
  India’s energy minister, Piyush Goyal, said recently that the country will help facilitate the electric car effort by offering subsidies for a couple of years. “After that,” he said, “the cost of electric vehicles will start paying for themselves.”

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

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Daily Headlines page

• China Looks to Capitalize on Clean Energy as U.S. Retreats (NY Times):
  China’s devastating pollution problems began here, in coal country, where legions of workers toiled and often died to exhume the rich deposits that fueled the country’s sooty rise to economic power. Today, these muddy plains are home to a potent symbol of China’s new ambition: to bypass the United States and cement its dominant role in clean energy.
• California, China Defy U.S. Climate Retreat With New Cleantech Tie-Up (Reuters):
  California said it will cooperate with China on clean technology, emissions trading and other ‘climate-positive’ opportunities as it bids to fill the gap left after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord last week.
• Trump Admin Seeks Permits For Seismic Air Gun Surveys In Atlantic (NPR):
  The Trump administration is taking steps to allow five energy companies to use seismic air guns for oil and gas exploration off the U.S. Atlantic coast even though they would incidentally harass marine mammals. Environmental groups and some coastal communities object.
• How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science (NY Times):
  The campaign ad appeared during the presidential contest of 2008. Rapid-fire images of belching smokestacks and melting ice sheets were followed by a soothing narrator who praised a candidate who had stood up to President George W. Bush and ‘sounded the alarm on global warming.’ It was not made for a Democrat, but for Senator John McCain, who had just secured the Republican nomination.
• Coal To Solar Switch Could Save 52,000 Us Lives Per Year (Daily Climate):
  Swapping out coal energy for solar would prevent 52,000 premature deaths in the United States every year, according to a new analysis from Michigan Technological University.
• Exxon’s Climate Accounting a ‘Sham’ Under Tillerson, New York AG Says (Inside Climate News):
  Eric Schneiderman says he has evidence that Exxon used one set of numbers in describing risks to investors but used a secret set internally.
• ‘Pink Slime’ Case Pits S.D. Meat Producer Against ABC News (NPR):
  The company that made ‘pink slime’ is suing ABC News, saying the network’s 2012 coverage was defamatory and hurt its operations. Opening statements began Monday.
• The Wild West of Deep-Sea Mining (Hakai Magazine):
  In the coming years, a new gold rush will begin. Deep beneath the ocean’s waves, from scalding hydrothermal vents to the frigid stretches of the abyssal plain, ocean processes have deposited vast quantities of valuable minerals on the seafloor. Now, the convergence of technological development and political will has placed this ore within reach. But like the gold rushes of old, the deep-sea-mining industry is emerging on the frontiers of society, far from legislatures and law enforcement.
• Inconvenient Data Buried As ‘Confidential Business Information.’ (Environmental Health News):
  After the European Parliament obtains the release of Monsanto’s data, a very different picture emerges about the safety of its product.
• Help arrives for Sandy-wrecked town as others resist dunes (AP):
  [E]ven this $128 million project isn’t enough to repair the damage Superstorm Sandy did to the Jersey shore. And not everyone wants the help.
• Solar’s rise lifted these blue-collar workers. Now they’re worried about Trump (Washington Post):
  [H]e supported President Trump, a defender of blue-collar workers. But the 25-year-old sees Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement as a threat to his job.
  “I’m a little nervous about it. The solar business is blowing up and that’s great for a lot of people around here,” Catanzaro said, just after switching on an 86-panel array atop a brick apartment building. “I was in favor of Trump, which I might regret now,” he said. “I just don’t want solar to go down the wrong path.”
• The 5 biggest deceptions in Trump’s Paris climate speech – It wasn’t easy narrowing these down. (Vox):
  It is a remarkable address, in its own way, in that virtually every passage contains something false or misleading. The sheer density of bullshit is almost admirable, from a performance art perspective…A proper fact-check would run longer than the speech itself. To keep this quick, I’ve selected the top five deceptions. A note: I’m not calling these “lies,” because that implies Trump knows they are false. It is far from clear that Trump understands anything about any of the issues at stake, or is even capable of forming stable beliefs as such.
• A beginner’s guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy (Vox):
  Clean-energy enthusiasts frequently claim that we can go bigger, that it’s possible for the whole world to run on renewables – we merely lack the “political will.” So, is it true? Do we know how get to an all-renewables system? Not yet. Not really.
• 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

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