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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Republicans waste public's time denying rising sea levels in House Science Committee hearing; NASA study finds humans are driving major changes in the global fresh water supply; British government to launch non-recyclable plastic tax; PLUS: He's back! Ex-con former coal baron Don Blankenship launches third party bid for U.S. Senate... 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): A 100 per cent renewable grid isn’t just feasible, it’s already happening; EPA bans CNN, AP from covering summit on chemicals, ‘forcibly’ removes reporter; Cell phones thrown in the trash are exploding, causing 5-alarm fires in garbage trucks; Seattle 'kayaktivists' join Kinder Morgan pipeline protest; In victory for biogas industry groups, farm bill fails in House; Paper mills likely major source of chemical pollution in waterways; Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals; National parks report on climate change finally released, uncensored; New study suggests future hurricanes will be slower and wetter as Earth warms... PLUS: China's Xi urges end to waste and irrational consumption in eco push... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Republicans waste public's time denying rising seas in House Science Committee:
• VIDEO: Rep. Brooks suggests rocks are causing sea levels to rise (YouTube)
• Lawmaker says tumbling rocks are causing seas to rise (E&E News) [emphasis added]:
  
  The purpose of the hearing was to focus on how technology could be deployed for climate change adaptation. But the hearing frequently turned to the basics of climate science...When Smith pointed out that rates of sea-level rise have only increased slightly compared with the rate of fossil fuel use, Duffy pointed out that his chart was from a single tide gauge station, near San Francisco, and that sea levels rise at different rates around the world.
• VIDEO: Here’s how big a rock you’d have to drop into the ocean to see the rise in sea level happening now (Washington Post):
  
  “What about erosion!” Brooks exclaimed. “Every single year that we’re on Earth, you have huge tons of silt deposited by the Mississippi River, by the Amazon River, by the Nile, by every major river system — and for that matter, creek, all the way down to the smallest systems. And every time you have that soil or rock whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise. Because now you’ve got less space in those oceans because the bottom is moving up.”
• GOP Lawmaker Says Rocks Falling Into Ocean Cause Rising Sea Levels (The Hill)
• Ex-con coal baron Don Blankenship launches 3rd party bid for US Senate:
• Blankenship to wage third-party bid after losing primary (Politico):
  
  The failed GOP candidate said he’ll run as the Constitution Party nominee, but West Virginia law appears to stand in his way.
• Controversial Senate candidate Don Blankenship says he will make a third-party run in West Virginia (Washington Post):
  
  But he must convince state election officials that his campaign does not run afoul of a “sore loser” law barring candidates who lose in party primaries from later switching their party affiliation to get on the general election ballot, which could be a difficult challenge.
• Don Blankenship: The Dark Lord of Coal Country (Rolling Stone)
• NASA study finds major, human-driven shifts in fresh water supplies worldwide:
• Mapping changes in world’s water, NASA scientists find 'human fingerprint' in many areas (Desert Sun):
  
  “The human fingerprint is all over changing freshwater availability. We see it in large-scale overuse of groundwater. We see it as a driver of climate change,” said Jay Famiglietti, a co-author of the research and senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “The study shows that humans have really drastically altered the global water landscape in a very profound way.”
• NASA Satellites Reveal Major Shifts in Global Freshwater (NASA)
• Water shortages to be key environmental challenge of the century, Nasa warns (Guardian UK):
  
  Freshwater supplies have already seriously declined in 19 global hotspots – from China to the Caspian Sea – due to overuse, groundbreaking study shows
• UK plans 'plastic tax' on non-recylable plastics:
• New 'plastic tax' planned to drive use of unrecyclable material out of existence (Independent UK):
  
  Exclusive: Government plans to use existing system to supercharge costs of using non-recyclable plastics
• Human footprint in the abyss: 30 year records of deep-sea plastic debris (Science Direct)
• Plastic tax: coffee cups and food packaging could face levy (Guardian UK)
• UK 'sin taxes' are working. Here's the proof (CNN)
• San Francisco to shift to all-electric buses by 2035:
• San Francisco Commits To All-Electric Bus Fleet By 2035 (press release, San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority)
• San Francisco Moving To All-Electric Bus Fleet By 2035 (Clean Technica):
  
  San Francisco is joining other world cities in moving toward a zero emissions public transportation fleet. Last week, the city and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency announced that all public buses operating in the city will be electric no later than 2035. To achieve that goal, new buses purchased in 2025 and thereafter will be battery operated. Reaching that goal will require a significant expansion of SFMTA’s charging infrastructure.
• Electric Buses Can Save Local U.S. Governments Billions. China's Showing Us How It's Done. (Forbes):
  
  Electric buses have lifecycle-cost advantages over internal-combustion engines because they covert energy into motion more effectively and have far fewer moving parts, making them cheaper to power and maintain over time.

'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's Xi urges end to waste and irrational consumption in eco push (Reuters)
• Cell phones thrown in the trash are exploding, causing 5-alarm fires in garbage trucks (USA Today)
• VIDEO: Seattle 'kayaktivists' join Kinder Morgan pipeline protest (Seattle NBC 5)
• In victory for biogas industry groups, farm bill fails in House (Waste Dive)
• New head of EPA’s California regional office questions role of humans in climate change (Climate Progress)
• Environmentalists: Paper mills likely major source of chemical pollution in waterways (The Hill)
• Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study (Guardian UK)
• National parks report on climate change finally released, uncensored (Reveal News)
• Federal regulators vote to limit practice of measuring climate impact of pipelines (Climate Progress)
• A 100% renewable grid isn’t just feasible, it’s already happening (Climate Progress)
• EPA bans CNN, AP from covering summit on chemicals, ‘forcibly’ removes reporter (Climate Progress)
• Pittsburgh and Flint: Privatizing Water Systems May Have Dire Consequences (The Intercept)
• Pharmaceutical makers sending drug-spiked water to treatment plants (Environmental Health News)
• Lawsuit Claims Monsanto Hid Cancer Danger Of Weedkiller For Decades (Guardian UK)
• Nothing Certain In Search For 'Regulatory Certainty' At EPA (NPR)
• Trump Administration Plans Solar Farm Near Joshua Tree In California (Desert Sun)
• Interior moves to lift restrictions on hunting bears, wolves on Alaska public lands (AP)
• New study suggests future hurricanes will be slower and wetter as Earth warms (Washington Post)
• The world's bleak climate situation, in 3 charts: We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. (Vox)
• Limiting global warming to 1.5C would have 'significant economic benefits (GreenBiz)
• AUDIO: An Inconvenient 'BradCast' with Al Gore (The BRAD BLOG):
  
  Guest Host Angie Coiro's exclusive interview with the former Vice President on elections, pollution, persuasion, activism, and hope...
• The Climate Risks We Face (NY Times):
  
  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.
• 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, San Francisco, Republicans, Green News, Climate change, NASA, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Donald Blankenship, Water