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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hurricane Florence clocked in as the second wettest storm in US history; North Carolina now grappling with outbreak of giant mosquitoes; Trump Administration using catastrophic climate change to justify rolling back fuel efficiency standards; PLUS: French president calls on UN to reject trade deals with any country not in the Paris Climate Agreement... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Trump Administration prepares a major weakening of mercury emissions rules; No one knows what would happen if mosquitoes were to disappear; Republican Congress allows parks program to expire over the weekend; NAFTA 2.0 avoids 'climate change,' talks ozone, air and sea pollution; Across the Arctic, lakes are leaking dangerous greenhouse gases, and one lake is behaving very strangely; Federal court again upholds state nuclear subsidies; U.S. Supreme Court keeps ban on new uranium mining at Grand Canyon; EPA chief defends rule rollbacks while at children’s health event; Scientists uncover genetic basis for toxic algal blooms... PLUS: Supreme Court rejects California billionaire's 'private beach' case... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Donald Trump just called himself an environmentalist. Wait, what? (Grist)
• Hurricane Florence was 2nd wettest storm in U.S. recorded history:
• Florence is nation’s second wettest storm, behind Harvey (AP):
  
  Hurricane Florence was the nation’s second rainiest storm in 70 years, a top rainfall meteorologist calculated. Only last year’s Hurricane Harvey rained more over a 14,000 square mile (36,260 square kilometers) area during a four-day time period, said Ken Kunkel, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and North Carolina State University. Scientists said climate change likely boosted rainfall totals for both storms.
• Florence was the wettest storm in more than half a century, behind Harvey (CNN):
  
  "The fact that so many of the rainiest events that we have measured over the last 70 years have come in the past handful of years is not just by random chance," CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller said.
• VIDEO: Water, the American President Explained, Is Wet (Esquire)
• North Carolina fights off giant mosquitoes in aftermath of Florence floods:
• North Carolina Has A Massive Mosquito Problem After Hurricane Florence (Huffington Post):
  
  The governor ordered $4 million for mosquito control as residents battle giant-sized insects that can reportedly bite through two layers of cotton.
• ‘Mosquito-pocalypse is in full effect’: North Carolina hit by blood-sucking pest outbreak (USA Today):
  
  The ones plaguing the Carolinas are called "Gallinippers," or "Psorophora ciliata," according to entomologist Michael Waldvogel of North Carolina State University (NCSU). This species that can be three times as large as average mosquitoes and the larvae are known to prey on aquatic animals that are as large as tadpoles. The females grow up to feed on large mammals, humans included.
• ‘Monstrous’ mosquitoes 20 times larger than normal swarm Carolinas after Florence (Charlotte Observer):
  
  North Carolina has suddenly become a hot spot for some of the largest mosquitoes in the country --- known as “mega mosquitoes” --- due to the rancid puddles left behind by Hurricane Florence.
• North Carolina solar plants passed the Florence extreme weather test:
• The Energy 202: Hurricane Florence blows hole in Trump team's case for helping coal and nuclear power, critics say (Washington Post)
• Solar Energy Largely Unscathed by Hurricane Florence’s Wind and Rain (Inside Climate News):
  
  In North Carolina, the #2 solar state, Florence was the first extreme weather test for much of its renewable energy...As energy experts point out, the most vulnerable part of the system is not new at all: it's the power lines and other equipment that transport electricity to customers.
• Clean Energy Players Weather Through Florence (GTM Research):
  
  But with floods expected through the week, installers and utilities say they’re still determining the storm’s impacts.
• North Carolina Solar Farms Slowly Recovering From Florence (Bloomberg)
• We could be headed for 20-30 feet of sea level rise by 2100:
• Ice loss from East Antarctic Ice Sheet during late Pleistocene interglacials (Nature)
• At this rate, Earth risks sea level rise of 20 to 30 feet, historical analysis shows (Washington Post):
  
  “What we definitely can say is that during the [geological] stages where temperatures were warm for a couple of degrees for a couple of millennia, this is where we see a distinct signature in our records,” Wilson said. “We can’t necessarily say things didn’t happen quick, but we can’t resolve that in our data.”
• East Antarctica: World’s Largest Ice Sheet Could Melt Under 2C Warming With Disastrous Consequences (Newsweek)
• Trump Admin. uses catastrophic climate change to justify weakening fuel efficency standards:
• Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100 (Washington Post):
  
  Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous seven degrees by the end of this century...But the administration did not offer this dire forecast, premised on the idea that the world will fail to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.
• The Planet Is Doomed—Let's Destroy It Faster! (Esquire):
  
  The Trump administration* establishes the United States government as a death cult.
• Macron rejects trade deals with any nation not in UN Paris Agreement (the U.S.):
• Macron rejects trade deals with countries outside Paris climate accord (Independent UK):
  
  The French president is calling on other countries to join him in refusing to sign new deals with 'powers that do not respect' the Paris Accord...“We will no longer sign commercial agreements with powers that do not respect the Paris accord,” Mr Macron said without directly referencing Mr Trump or the US.
• VIDEO: Watch: French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the UN General Assembly (PBS NewsHour)
• Transcript: United Nations General Assembly: Speech by President Emmanuel Macron (France Diplomatie, 9/25/2018)

'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 Administration Prepares a Major Weakening of Mercury Emissions Rules (NY Times)
• No One Knows Exactly What Would Happen If Mosquitoes Were to Disappear (Atlantic)
• Congress allows parks program to expire over the weekend (Climate Progress)
• NAFTA 2.0 Avoids 'Climate Change,' Talks Ozone, Air And Sea Pollution (National Observer Canada)
• Arctic Cauldron: Across the Arctic, lakes are leaking dangerous greenhouse gases. And one lake is behaving very strangely. (Washington Post)
• Federal court again upholds state nuclear subsidies, this time in New York (Utility Dive)
• VIDEO: The Other Weed: Is Seaweed a Carbon Negative Cash Crop? (Climate Crocks)
• The Hapless Dusky Gopher Frog Divides The Supreme Court (Washington Post)
• U.S. Supreme Court Keeps Ban On Uranium Mining At Grand Canyon (AZ Capitol Times)
• Supreme Court Rejects California Billionaire's 'Private Beach' Case (Guardian UK)
• IPCC: Climate Scientists Consider 'Life Changing' Report (BBC)
  

• EPA Chief Defends Rule Rollbacks While At Children’s Health Event (The Hill)
• Warm Waters Boosted 2017's Major Hurricane Tally, Study Says (AP)
• Scientists Uncover Genetic Basis for Toxic Algal Blooms (KQED)
• Industrial Poison Oozed Through Small Town For Years, Unknown To Many (Columbia State)
• US district court denies challenge to eminent domain use for ACP, MVP pipelines
  (SNP/Platts)
• Zinke is officially rolling back offshore oil and gas production safety rules (Climate Progress)
• Oil and gas firm battles with coal giant over right to develop minerals in Campbell County (Casper Tribune)
• A Global Shift To Sustainability Would Save Us $26 Trillion (Vox)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• 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).

                 

Article Categories: North Carolina, United Nations, Environment, France, Green News, Donald Trump, Coal, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Transportation, Paris Agreement, Antarctica, Emmanuel Macron, Hurricane Florence