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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Hawaii dodges direct hit from record-breaking Hurricane Lane, but receives a warning about global warming; Australia’s conservative prime minister ousted over climate policies; PLUS: The complicated climate legacy of Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

8/28/2018

‘Green News Report’ – August 28, 2018  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – August 28, 2018  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Air pollution is making us dumber, study shows; Pesticide studies won EPA trust, until Trump team scorned so-called ‘secret science’; The most vulnerable Texans never recovered from Harvey; Kansans drank contaminated water for years. The state didn’t tell them; In the rural West: more oil, more gas, more ozone; Houston voters approve $2.5 billion flood infrastructure funding; Secret life of an EV battery; Electric car revolution is unstoppable thanks to Elon Musk; Arizona clean-energy ballot measure can go on Nov. ballot, judge rules… PLUS: Climate change report: California to see 77 percent more land burned… PLUS:

… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Hawaii dodges a direct hit from record-breaking Hurricane Lane:
• Big Island fears cost of Lane recovery could be in the millions (KHNL Hawaii News Now)
• Hawaii’s rain from Hurricane Lane, topping 50 inches, is among most extreme in U.S. records (Washington Post):
  This preliminary total ranks as the second highest for a tropical storm or hurricane in the United States since records began in 1950, according to the National Weather Service office based in Honolulu. It also marks the greatest rainfall total on record from these storms in the state of Hawaii.
• Hurricane Lane dumped 52 inches of rain on Hawaii and there might be more on the way (CNN)
• What’s reopening in Hawaii after the wake of Tropical Storm Lane (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
• Lane’s Heavy Rains Close Kauai Highway, School (Weather Channel)
• Hurricane Lane delivers a warning to Hawaii on global warming:
• Hurricane Lane Brings Hawaii a Warning About Future Storm Risk (Inside Climate News):
  Warming water in the Central Pacific as global temperatures rise is likely to boost tropical storm activity in a region largely spared in the past.
• Why Hurricanes Like Lane May Become More Common In Hawaii (Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Forbes):
  Tropical storms near Hawaii are predicted to increase in frequency by about 15% per decade, assuming business-as-usual fossil fuel emissions. We can cut that increase roughly in half by reducing our fossil fuel emissions. The increase in hurricane activity near Hawaii is due to two factors: warming seawater and less wind shear. Unfortunately, the increase in tropical storms will be in the form of storms with maximum winds faster than 125 mph.
• Response of the North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Climatology to Global Warming: Application of Dynamical Downscaling to CMIP5 Models (Journal of the American Meteorological Society)
• Australia: Prime Minister Turnbull ousted over climate policies:
• Climate Change Policy Toppled Australia’s Leader. Here’s What It Means for Others. (NY Times):
  It’s also a glimpse into what a potent political issue climate change and energy policy can be in a handful of countries with powerful fossil fuel lobbies, namely Australia, Canada and the United States. In Australia, the world’s largest exporter of coal, climate and energy policy have infused politics for a decade, helping to bring down both liberal and conservative lawmakers.
• Rupert Murdoch: Cancer eating the heart of Australian democracy (op-ed, former PM Kevin Rudd, Sydney Morning Herald)
• Rupert Murdoch’s ‘The Australian’: Malcolm Turnbull ignored policy critics to his peril (The Australian)
• Can’t vote Liberal ‘in good conscience’: Alex Turnbull blasts climate stance (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Australia pulls out of climate change targets agreed at Paris conference (Independent UK)
• Australia grapples with winter wildfires, record drought:
• Farmers urged to look after themselves as they struggle through New South Wales drought (ABC)
• Rain brings relief in NSW and Queensland, but drought far from over (Guardian UK)
• NSW declared 100% in drought as farmers fear relief package ‘too late’ (Guardian UK)
• Residents told to remain vigilant as bushfire burns out of control (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Winter wildfires break out across eastern Australia (The Times UK)
• Drought in Australia to intensify, fuels winter bush fires (Down To Earth)
• Australia struggles with a devastating drought while the government ignores climate change (op-ed, Washington Post)
• The complicated climate legacy of Arizona Sen. John McCain:
• McCain Was Such A Climate Change Maverick That He Undermined His Own Good Work (Huffington Post):
  When climate legislation might actually have had a chance, Sen. John McCain went missing.
• VIDEO: John McCain’s Climate Change Legacy (Inside Climate News):
  The senator from Arizona brought climate science into Capitol Hill hearings and cap-and-trade legislation to a vote, but then moderate Republican politics changed.
• David Roberts tweet thread on Sen. McCain’s changing climate positions: (Vox):
  I’ll just focus on the area I know best: climate politics. McCain’s adventures there, and the press’s reaction, are a perfect distillation of the larger McCain Dynamic.
• VIDEO: Sen. John McCain’s Remarks at the Vestas Training Facility in Portland, Oregon, May 12, 2008 (Sen. John McCain YouTube channel)
• Sen. John McCain: Remarks at the Vestas Training Facility in Portland, Oregon, May 12, 2008 (American Presidency Project):
  We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.

‘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

• Air pollution is making us dumber, study shows (CNN)
• Pesticide Studies Won EPA Trust, Until Trump Team Scorned ‘Secret Science’ (NY Times)
• The most vulnerable Texans never recovered from Harvey (Climate Progress)
• Kansans drank contaminated water for years. The state didn’t tell them. (Wichita Eagle)
• In the Rural West: More Oil, More Gas, More Ozone (Undark)
• Climate change report: California to see 77 percent more land burned (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Houston’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Bet to Survive the Next Harvey [Voters approved Proposition A on Aug. 25] (CityLab)
• The Secret Life Of An EV Battery (Clean Technica)
• The electric car revolution is unstoppable thanks to Elon Musk (Climate Progress)
• Will there ever be one standard recycling measurement? (Waste Dive)
• DuPont Spinoff Chemours Lobbied EPA to Stave Off Greener Coolants (The Intercept)
• Arizona Clean-Energy Ballot Measure Can Go On Nov. Ballot, Judge Rules (Arizona Republic)
• Colorado approves Xcel plan to retire coal, shift to renewables and storage (Utility Dive)
• The 6 things you most need to know about Trump’s new climate plan: It could actually increase air pollution, and it’s a pretty bad deal. (Vox)
• Don’t look now, but the whole world is on fire (Fast Company)
• Big oil asks government to protect it from climate change (AP)
• VIDEO: Can Climate Coverage Improve? It Can Hardly Get Worse… (Climate Crocks)
• An Optimist’s Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)
• The great nutrient collapse: The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention. (Politico)
• 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)
• 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).