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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 'GNR' SPECIAL COVERAGE - The comprehensive National Climate Assessment is out, with dire warnings on the impacts of climate change, but also hope that governments can act in time to reduce emissions... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): America is officially the world's climate pariah. Syria joins Paris Climate Agreement; Here's how far the world is from meeting its climate goals; Puerto Rico needs as much as $21 billion in aid to rebuild; EPA science advisor defends comments that dirty air helps kids; Contractors billed $114 per nut for SC nuclear reactor; ND officials seek $1 billion water pipeline; Rich nations failing to reduce emissions, assist poor nations with climate change impacts; House Republicans wants to 'invalidate' endangered species act; Loss of federal protections will endanger coral reefs, fisheries; Earth's ozone hole smallest since 1988... PLUS: Texas toxicologist who rejects basic science named to EPA science advisory board.... and much, MUCH more! ...

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY'S 'GREEN NEWS REPORT'...

• VIDEO: Full Frontal Samantha Bee Climate Change episode (Full Frontal, Youtube)
• 4th National Climate Assessment (NCA4) is out, and its predictions are grim:
• Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), Volume I (US Global Change Research Program):
  
  This report is an authoritative assessment of the science of climate change, with a focus on the United States. It represents the first of two volumes of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990.
• Executive Summary of the U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate Science Special Report (US Global Change Research Program):
  
  Global annually averaged surface air temperature has increased by about 1.8°F (1.0°C) over the last 115 years (1901-2016). This period is now the warmest in the history of modern civilization. The last few years have also seen record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes, and the last three years have been the warmest years on record for the globe. These trends are expected to continue over climate timescales...Changes in the characteristics of extreme events are particularly important for human safety, infrastructure, agriculture, water quality and quantity, and natural ecosystems.
• Ch. 1: Our Globally Changing Climate:
  
  The world has warmed over the last 150 years, especially over the last six decades, and that warming has triggered many other changes to Earth's climate...Many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are primarily responsible for the observed climate changes in the industrial era...
• Ch. 2: Physical Drivers of Climate Change
• Ch. 3: Detection and Attribution of Climate Change
• Ch. 4: Climate Models, Scenarios, and Projections
• Ch. 5: Large-Scale Circulation and Climate Variability
• Ch. 6: Temperature Changes in the United States
• Ch. 7: Precipitation Change in the United States
• Ch. 8: Droughts, Floods, and Wildfire
• Chapter 9: Extreme Storms
• Ch. 10: Changes in Land Cover and Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
• Ch. 11: Arctic Changes and their Effects on Alaska and the Rest of the United States
• Ch. 12: Sea Level Rise
• Chapter 13: Ocean Acidification and Other Ocean Changes:
  
  The world's oceans are currently absorbing more than a quarter of the CO2 emitted to the atmosphere annually from human activities, making them more acidic (very high confidence), with potential detrimental impacts to marine ecosystems...The rate of acidification is unparalleled in at least the past 66 million years.
• Ch. 14: Perspectives on Climate Change Mitigation
• Chapter 15: Potential Surprises: Compound Extremes and Tipping Elements:
  
  While climate models incorporate important climate processes that can be well quantified, they do not include all of the processes that can contribute to feedbacks, compound extreme events, and abrupt and/or irreversible changes. For this reason, future changes outside the range projected by climate models cannot be ruled out.
• Media coverage of the National Climate Assessment:
• VIDEO: Extreme climate-linked events are virtually certain to increase, according to exhaustive government report (PBS NewsHour)
• Trump administration releases report finding 'no convincing alternative explanation' for climate change (Washington Post):
  
  The report affirms that climate change is driven almost entirely by human action, warns of a worst-case scenario where seas could rise as high as eight feet by the year 2100, and details climate-related damage across the United States that is already unfolding as a result of an average global temperature increase of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900.
• The Climate Risks We Face (op-ed, NY Times, by report authors Radley Horton, Katharine Hayhoe, Robert Kopp and Sarah Doherty):
  
  To stabilize global temperature, net carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. The window of time is rapidly closing to reduce emissions and limit warming to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the Paris climate accord. The further we push the climate system beyond historical conditions, the greater the risks of potentially unforeseen and even catastrophic changes to the climate - so every reduction in emissions helps.
• Massive Government Report Says Climate Is Warming And Humans Are The Cause (NPR)
• U.S. Report Says Humans Cause Climate Change, Contradicting Top Trump Officials (NY Times)

'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

• America is officially the world's climate pariah. Syria joins Paris Climate Agreement (New Republic)
• A major contributor to the Syrian conflict? Climate change (PBS NewsHour)
• Here's How Far the World Is From Meeting Its Climate Goals (NY Times)
• Puerto Rico Needs as Much as $21 Billion in Aid, Oversight Official Says (Bloomberg)
• EPA Science Adviser Defends Comment On Dirty Air Helping Kids (E&E News)
• Contractor wasted millions on unnecessary supplies for S.C.'s failed nuclear reactors (Post & Courier)
• Trump accused of obstructing satellite research into climate change, after Republican-controlled Congress ordered destruction of vital sea-ice probe (Guardian UK)
• North Dakota officials: Optimism builds over $1 billion water pipeline to serve Red River Valley, central ND (Bismarck Tribune)
• Rich Nations Fail to Help Developing World Fight Climate Change (Bloomberg)
• House Chair Bishop Wants To ‘Invalidate’ The Endangered Species Act (Washington Post)
• Loss of Federal Protections May Imperil Pacific Reefs, Scientists Warn (NY times)
• Texas Toxicologist Who Rejects Basic Science Named to EPA Science Board (Texas Tribune)
• Robert Murray, coal CEO and Trump campaign donor, wins big under Perry's power plan (Politico)
• Lamar Smith Quitting Congress; Second Texas GOP Chairman This Week (Dallas Morning News)
• Earth’s Ozone Hole Shrivels To Smallest Since 1988 (AP)
• Ohio city refuses to give up fight against gas pipeline (SF Chronicle)
• Crops in 25 States Damaged by Unintended Drift of Weed Killer (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).

                 

Article Categories: Environment, Green News, Donald Trump, Natural gas, Coal, Oil, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Water, Paris Agreement, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria