Follow @GreenNewsReport...

(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Scandal-plagued Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is out; United Nations COP24 climate talks make progress on the Paris Agreement 'rule book'; Youth climate activists ratchet up the pressure; PLUS: Companies jump at U.S. offshore wind lease sale, shattering all previous records... 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): U.S. Southwest may be deep into a climate-changed mega-drought; Most Americans want action on climate change --- Republicans are the exception; As Americans wake up to climate threat, Deniers dig in; Green New Deal has strong bipartisan support; Hurricane Michael cost this military base about $5 Billion; What a partial US-government shutdown would mean for science; There’s no easy fix for our nuclear past; California requires new city buses to be electric by 2029; Georgia Power coal ash ponds leaking toxins into groundwater... PLUS: An epidemic is killing thousands of coal miners. Regulators could have stopped it... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Scandal-plagued Sec. Ryan Zinke is out at Interior:
• Interior Secretary Zinke resigns amid investigations (Washington Post):
  
  During his tenure, Zinke came under at least 15 investigations, including: inquiries into his connection to a real estate deal involving a company that Interior regulates; whether he bent government rules to allow his wife to ride in government vehicles; and allowing a security detail to travel with him on a vacation to Turkey at considerable taxpayer cost.
• Zinke Leaves Legacy of Weakened Environmental Protections (E&E News):
  
  Policies championed by the departing Interior Secretary will also increase emissions from public lands.
• Ryan Zinke to step down as Interior secretary (High Country News)
• Ryan Zinke To Step Down One Day Before Dems Get Oversight Powers (Huffington Post)
• House Democrats won’t let Zinke escape investigation, even after he leaves office (Climate Progress)
• David Bernhardt: Zinke’s likely replacement has been 'the man behind the curtain' (Politico)
• Justice Department investigating Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (CNN, 10/31/18)
• COP24: United Nations climate talks ends with deal on 'rulebook':
• ‘1,000 little steps’: Global climate talks end in progress but fail to address the galloping pace of climate change (Washington Post):
  
  [T]he agreement fell well short of the breakthrough that scientists — and many of the conference’s own participants — say is needed to avoid the cataclysmic impacts of a warming planet.
• COP24: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Katowice (Carbon Brief)
• Countries reach agreement on Paris climate accord rules at COP24 (AP):
  
  After two weeks of bruising negotiations, officials from almost 200 countries agreed Saturday on universal, transparent rules that will govern efforts to cut emissions and curb global warming. Fierce disagreements on two other climate issues were kicked down the road for a year to help bridge a chasm of opinions on the best solutions.
• VIDEO: COP24 climate deal: achievement or disappointment? (CBC):
  
  Officials from almost 200 countries, including Canada, agreed Saturday on a transparent rule book that will govern efforts to cut emissions and curb global warming. Some delegates are calling the deal a step forward but activists, including Greenpeace, are calling it "morally bankrupt."
• Nations agree on global climate pact rules, but they are seen as weak (Reuters):
  
  At the 11th hour, ministers managed to break a deadlock between Brazil and other countries over the accounting rules for the monitoring of carbon credits, deferring the bulk of that discussion to next year, but missing an opportunity to send a signal to businesses to speed up their actions.
• Climate change: Five things we've learnt from COP24 (BBC):
  
  The key thing was not to unravel the carefully negotiated Paris agreement by having one set of rules for the rich countries and another one for the poor. By that measure the conference was a success with China showing leadership by not pushing for a return to the old ways of countries who did, and countries who didn't.
• Climate Negotiators Reach an Overtime Deal to Keep Paris Pact Alive (NY Times)
• As UN climate summit winds down, signs of a path forward? (CS Monitor):
  
  China signaled it would be open to using “uniform” rules for cutting emissions that would apply to all countries, a point Chinese officials had been reluctant to sign onto. China’s change of heart came after the European Union agreed to include a voluntary component, with countries choosing when they’re ready to join, up to a deadline.
• New Era of Global Climate Action To Begin Under Paris Climate Change Agreement (UNFCCC press release)
• At COP24, countries agree concrete way forward to bring the Paris climate deal to life (United Nations press release)
• COP24: Youth climate activists racthed up the pressure:
• VIDEO: 15-Year-old Greta Thunberg: "Change is Coming Whether you Like it or Not" (Climate Creek):
  
  Greta Thunberg is having none of your bullshit.
• Greta Thunberg: Teen tells climate negotiators they aren't mature enough (CNN) [emphasis added]:
  
  "You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet. Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money...You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes."
• At the UN climate summit, youth leads the way (op-ed, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Santa Cruz Sentinel)
• Young Activists Offer Their Climate Demands at COP24: 'We're Fighting. Where Are You?' (Pacific Standard)
• A youth activist on the climate crisis: politicians won't save us (Guardian UK)
• U.S. offshore wind lease sale shatters records:
• Martha's Vineyard Wind-Farm Sites Spur $405 Million Bids (Bloomberg):
  
  Wind developers are being lured to American waters by near-guaranteed demand, as coastal states ratchet up commitments to buy renewable electricity. Massachusetts doubled its goal for buying offshore wind to 3,200 megawatts in August.
• Record-breaking $405M US offshore wind leasing auction shows 'bullish' interest (Utility Dive):
  
  An Interior Department offshore wind lease auction for three blocks of acreage off the coast of Massachusetts brought in a record-shattering $405.1 million on Friday.
• The Trump Administration Held a Record-Breaking Offshore Wind Lease Sale This Week (Earther):
  
  The interest on display this year shows that the U.S. offshore wind industry is taking a huge step forward in terms of scale and ambition as it tries to catchup to countries in Europe that got an earlier start.
• Trump's Giant Offshore Oil and Gas Lease Sale Was a Flop (Earther, 8/16/18)

'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

• The Southwest May Be Deep Into a Climate-Changed Mega-Drought (The Atlantic)
• As Americans Wake up to Climate Threat, Deniers Dig In (Climate Crocks)
• Most Americans want action on climate change. Republicans are the exception. (CNBC)
• An Epidemic Is Killing Thousands Of Coal Miners. Regulators Could Have Stopped It (NPR)
• If you recycled all the plastic garbage in the world, you could buy the NFL, Apple and Microsoft (The Conversation)
• The Green New Deal has Strong Bipartisan Support (Yale Climate Communications)
• Hurricane Michael Cost This Military Base About $5 Billion (Inside Climate News)
• What a partial US-government shutdown would mean for science (Nature)
• There’s no easy fix for our nuclear past (High Country News)
• How Ocean Heatwaves Are Threatening The Gulf Of Maine (Forbes)
• Florida man charged in Tennessee for running $28 million solar farm Ponzi scheme (WZTV-Nashville)
• California Requires New City Buses to Be Electric by 2029 (NY Times)
• Report: Georgia Power Coal Ash Ponds Leaking Toxins Into Groundwater (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• McKibben Calls FBI Tracking Of Environmental Activists “Contemptible” (Clean Technica)
• An Upheaval at the Ends of the World (The Atlantic)
• Fourth National Climate Assessment, Vol. 2: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States [PDF] (U.S. Global Change Research Program)
• What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like: How to hit the most stringent targets, with no loopholes. (David Roberts, Vox)
• 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: United Nations, Environment, Democrats, Green News, Donald Trump, Natural gas, Oil, Wind energy, Climate change, China, Paris Agreement, Public lands, Greta Thunberg