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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Ophelia batters Ireland — yes, Ireland; Firefighters gain ground against deadliest wildfire week in California history; Desperate Puerto Ricans obtaining water from toxic Superfund sites; PLUS: Search for missing worker suspended after oil rig explosion in Louisiana… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 10/17/2017

‘Green News Report’ – October 17, 2017  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – October 17, 2017  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Trump’s Love Affair with Coal: Why a president who struggles to stay on topic has a laser focus on one shrinking industry; EPA head seeks to avoid settlements with environmental groups; Why Puerto Rico’s electric grid didn’t stand a chance against Maria; Is Uber killing mass transit?; Trump taps climate skeptic for top White House environmental post; Plant more trees to combat climate change; Interior Dept. secretly working on ‘land swap’ for long-sought road through Alaskan wilderness; Europe’s largest oil company buys Europe’s largest electric vehicle charging network; Bananapocalypse: The race to save the world’s most popular fruit… PLUS: How deep ocean wind turbines could power the world…. and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Hurricane Ophelia breaks records in record-breaking storm season:
• Ophelia’s trail of destruction: Emergency works continue as 69,000 still without water (The Independent, Ireland)
• Warm waters juiced Ophelia into the most powerful eastern Atlantic hurricane ever seen (Climate Progress):
  “I think it’s unheard of for a hurricane to form this far east in the Atlantic and then take an almost south-to-north track which takes it directly across Ireland,” Prof. John Sweeney of Maynooth University told The Irish Times.
• Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before (Ars Technica):
  “I really can’t believe I’m seeing a major just south of the Azores.”
• Wind, rain, and wildfire: the wrath Hurricane Ophelia brought to Europe (Vox):
  How a tropical storm pummeling Ireland and the UK is making wildfires in Spain and Portugal worse.
• At Least 3 Killed As Historic Storm Ophelia Hits Ireland, Turns U.K. Skies Red (NPR)
• VIDEO: Post-Tropical Cyclone Ophelia Blasting Ireland, United Kingdom With Damaging Winds; Gusts Over 70 MPH Reported (Weather Channel)
• Tropical Storm Ophelia Really Did Break the Weather Forecast Grid (Slate):
  Adding to the sensation that we’re witnessing a glitch in the matrix, the storm has also brought along a literal glitch in the storm tracker maps issued by the National Weather Service. This hurricane, it seems, exists too far outside of the traditional tropical storm boundaries to be automatically mapped.
• VIDEO: For Ophelia, the ‘what’ isn’t remarkable, it’s the ‘where’ (CNN):
  Hurricanes and strong cyclones in Europe? They happen sometimes, but they typically aren’t very strong. Ophelia’s path — coming in from the south as opposed to the west — means the storm had time to gather and maintain strength, making it the strongest storm the region has seen in decades.
• VIDEO: Ireland on lockdown after former Hurricane Ophelia makes landfall (CNN)
• Hurricane Ophelia: Three people die as storm hits Ireland (BBC)
• Ophelia was the 10th hurricane to form in the Atlantic in the last 10 weeks (Quartz)
• The 2017 Hurricane Season Really Is More Intense Than Normal (NY Times)
• Europe’s cities are unprepared to deal with storms such as ex-hurricane Ophelia. That’s got to change. (City Lab):
  “We anticipate an increase in severe storms of predominantly tropical origin reaching western Europe as part of 21st-century global warming.”
• Firefighters gain ground against deadly wildfires in Northern California:
• Live updates: Nuns Fire in Sonoma, Napa counties now largest of Northern Calif. blazes (SF Gate)
• California Wildfire Damage Estimates Top $3 Billion, State Senator Says (Yahoo Finance)
• This Week’s Air Quality Is Worst On Record For San Francisco Bay Area (NPR)
• California Fires: Record Hot Summer, Wet Winter Created Explosive Mix (Inside Climate News)
• California’s new normal? Ever more-intense heat, fires, droughts and floods (Sacramento Bee):
  “It is pretty frightening,” said T.C. Boyle, author of “A Friend of the Earth,” a 2000 novel that depicted a California ravaged by extreme weather and environmental devastation in the year 2025. “People say I was prescient by what I predicted for 2025,” he said in an interview Thursday. “The sad joke is I should have said 2015. It is frightening how quickly we got here.”
• Cleanup From California Fires Poses Environmental and Health Risks (NY Times):
  “Just think of all the hazardous materials in your house,” she said in an interview. “Your chemicals, your pesticides, propane, gasoline, plastic and paint “” it all burns down into the ash. It concentrates in the ash, and it’s toxic,” said Dr. Relucio, who declared a public emergency over the hazardous waste from the fires, as have at least two other counties.
• US, States Struggle To Pay Spiraling Cost Of Fighting Fires (AP)
• Wildfires in Portugal, Spain, Brazil
• Portugal and Spain Wildfires Kill at Least 41 (AP):
  Portugal began three days of national mourning Tuesday over its 37 fire deaths amid widespread public anger, with pressure growing on the government to explain why officials failed to prevent the tragedy that came just four months after 64 others died in another fast-moving blaze.
• Record Amazon fires stun scientists; sign of sick, degraded forests (Monga Bay):
  Figures from the Brazilian government’s INPE (National Institute of Space Research) show that 2017 is shaping up to be the worst year on record for forest fires.
• Wind, rain, and wildfire: the wrath Hurricane Ophelia brought to Europe (Vox):
  How a tropical storm pummeling Ireland and the UK is making wildfires in Spain and Portugal worse.
• Update on Puerto Rico, still in crisis:
• Desperate Puerto Ricans line up for water “” at a hazardous-waste site (Washington Post)
• Trump can’t stop blaming Puerto Ricans for the island’s humanitarian crisis (Climate Progress)
• Remarks by President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Joint Press Conference (White House)
• Puerto Rico: US officials privately acknowledge serious food shortage (Guardian UK):
  US government providing 200,000 meals a day to meet needs of 2m people…’There is no urgency in the government response to this humanitarian crisis.’
• VIDEO: Trump’s Puerto Rico failure is ‘a national disgrace,’ says former Republican Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
• FEMA dodges questions about Puerto Rico’s reported food shortages (Climate Progress)
• There’s a hospital ship waiting for sick Puerto Ricans — but no one knows how to get on it (CNN)
• Hurricane Maria: Inside a Puerto Rican Barrio’s Fight to Survive (Rolling Stone):
  What the G8 neighborhoods in San Juan can teach us about the coming age of permanent disaster
• Louisiana oil rig explodes, and a pipeline ruptures, within 72 hours:
• Search suspended for man missing after Lake Pontchartrain platform explosion (NOLA.com)
• 3 remain in critical condition after oil platform explosion on Lake Pontchartrain (NOLA.com)
• VIDEO: Platform explosion rocks Kenner, injures 7 people Sunday (NOLA.com)
• VIDEO: Missing oil platform worker identified, three others remain hospitalized after explosion (WILV-TV New Orleans)
• Oil spills into Gulf of Mexico after underwater pipe bursts off coast of Louisiana (AP)
• Trump’s war on the war on coal is not going well:
• China halts more than 150 coal-fired power plants (Greenpeace)
• Luminant to close 2 more Texas coal plants despite Trump support (Utility Dive)

‘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

• Trump’s Love Affair with Coal: Why a president who struggles to stay on topic has a laser focus on one shrinking industry. (Politico)
• EPA head seeks to avoid settlements with green groups (Reuters)
• Why Puerto Rico’s Electric Grid Stood No Chance Against Maria (538.com)
• How Deep Ocean Wind Turbines Could Power the World (Inside Climate News)
• Is Uber killing transit? (Treehugger)
• Trump taps climate skeptic for top White House environmental post (Washington Post)
• Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Portraying Environmental Activism as Illegal Racket – but it’s not over yet (Inside Climate News)
• Plant More Trees To Combat Climate Change: Scientists (Reuters)
• Pros Doubt EPA Curbs On Monsanto, Basf Herbicides Will Halt Crop Damage (Reuters)
• Interior Works Covert Land Swap To Allow Road Through AK Wildlife Refuge (Washington Post)
• Coal Plant Closures Continue Even As U.S. Ends ‘Clean Power Plan’ (Reuters)
• World’s first “negative emission” power plant turns CO2 into stone (New Atlas)
• New EPA document reveals sharply lower estimate of the cost of climate change (Washington Post)
• Europe’s largest oil company buys Europe’s largest electric vehicle charging network (Treehugger)
• Bananapocalypse: The race to save the world’s most popular fruit (Washington Post)
• COMMENT: EPA proposes to withdraw Clean Water Act restrictions for Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed (EPA.gov)
• How to Comment on EPA’s Proposal (EPA.gov):
  Please submit your comments to EPA using one of the methods below. Comments are due October 17, 2017.
• 52 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump (NY Times)
• The Uninhabitable Earth: When will climate change make earth too hot for humans? (New York Magazine):
  Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak – sooner than you think.
• 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).