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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Climate change is expensive, particularly for the U.S. military; 2018 on track to be fourth costliest year in U.S. history for weather disasters; Polls show Americans waking up to climate change and the Green New Deal; PLUS: Cities and states step up, setting ambitious new climate goals at year's end... 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): Trump is undoing much more than Obama’s legacy. He's trying to destroy government regulation as we know it; That global warming hiatus? It never happened. Two new studies explain why; Companies are seriously underestimating how climate change will affect business; EU agrees to ban throw-away plastics to limit ocean pollution; Black lung disease is still killing miners. The coal industry doesn't want to hear it; Wetlands, lakes would lose protections under Michigan state legislature bill; What L.A. can learn from Minneapolis’ ban on single-family zoning; Would human extinction be a tragedy?... PLUS: Hot or Not?: Which 2018 climate trend is here to stay?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• 2018 likely to rank among top four years for billion-dollar U.S. weather disasters:
• Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Overview (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information):
  
  In 2018 (as of October 9), there have been 11 weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States...During 2018, the U.S. has experienced the fourth highest total number of events, only behind the very active years of 2017, 2011 and 2016.
• Hurricane Michael Cost This Military Base About $5 Billion, Just One of 2018's Weather Disasters (Inside Climate News):
  
  "2016, 2017 and 2018 have all been near record levels as far as extreme weather and climate events," Smith said. "Lots of changes are happening. The future is being more and more defined by extreme events. Where we build, how we build, and climate change" are the three leading factors for the increasing number of costly disasters, he said.
• Billion-Dollar Disasters Trending Up (WTAJ Pennsylvania)
• NOAA: Hurricane Florence one of eleven 'Billion Dollar Disasters' in 2018 (WPDE-Myrtle Beach)
• The Strange, Record-Setting Weather Extremes Texans Faced in 2018 (Texas Observer):
  
  Historically, Texas has had more billion-dollar disasters than any other state.
• After a Natural Disaster, Is It Better to Rebuild or Retreat? (NY Times)
• Climate change impacts are expensive, says U.S. military:
• Hurricane Michael Cost This Military Base About $5 Billion (Inside Climate News):
  
  The hurricane—one of at least a dozen climate and weather disasters in the United States this year to top $1 billion in damage—left a wide trail of destruction through homes, businesses and farms from Florida to the Carolinas.
• Senior Military Leaders to Congress: Climate Disasters Costing Us Billions (The Center for Climate and Security):
  
  Not only is it going to cost a lot of money to recover from Hurricanes Florence and Michael (reported to be $3.6 billion and $5 billion respectively), we’re going to need to start building our facilities with climate resilience in mind... Senator Kaine observes that it would be “foolish to repair a building that would then be vulnerable to the same kind of damage in the next hurricane that comes along.” General Neller sums up the discussion stating, “We’re going to have to start addressing this so we do this correctly and spend the money correctly.”
• Rising Seas Are Flooding Norfolk Naval Base, and There’s No Plan to Fix It (Inside Climate News)
• More Americans waking up to climate change:
• More Americans view climate change as 'imminent' threat: Reuters/Ipsos Poll (Reuters)
• Poll Data: Should the U.S. take aggressive action to slow global warming? (Reuters Polling Explorer)
• Poll: Most Americans want action on climate change. Republicans are the exception. (CNBC) [emphasis added]:
  
  In a new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll 66 percent of Americans now say they've seen enough evidence to justify action on climate change, up from 51 percent two decades ago...Resistance comes only from the one-third of Americans who identify themselves as Republicans. A 56 percent majority of the GOP says either that concern about climate change is unwarranted or that more research is necessary before taking action.
• As Americans Wake up to Climate Threat, Deniers Dig In (Climate Crocks)
• Americans broadly support Democrats' 'Green New Deal' --- for now:
• The Green New Deal has Strong Bipartisan Support (Yale Prorgram on Climate Communications):
  
  The Deal would generate 100% of the nation’s electricity from clean, renewable sources within the next 10 years; upgrade the nation’s energy grid, buildings, and transportation infrastructure; increase energy efficiency; invest in green technology research and development; and provide training for jobs in the new green economy....The survey results show overwhelming support for the Green New Deal, with 81% of registered voters saying they either “strongly support” (40%) or “somewhat support” (41%) this plan.
• Poll: Green New Deal is Wildly Popular (Climate Crocks)
• New Poll Shows Basically Everyone Likes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal (Earther):
  
  [T]he fact that the idea enjoys broad support in a semi-vacuum shows that before Americans descend into their political bunkers, progressive policies are actually quite popular.
• Green New Deal Has Overwhelming Bipartisan Support, Poll Finds. At Least, For Now. (Huffington Post):
  
  Study after study shows Americans evaluate policies more negatively when they are told politicians from an opposing party back the ideas, and more positively when they are told politicians from their own party are in support. The findings therefore indicate that although most Republicans favor the Green New Deal in principle, they are not yet aware that the plan is proposed by the political left.
• Cities and states set new, ambitious climate and clean energy goals:
• Trump’s White House Will Have to Go Green Under DC’s New Clean Energy Plan (Mother Jones):
  
  The Clean Energy DC Act, approved in a unanimous vote by the council, requires the District to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2032. That means the White House will have to comply as well...The DC bill also establishes new energy efficiency standards for buildings and incentivizes the use of clean cars.
• DC Just Passed the 'Strongest Climate Legislation' in the Nation (Earther)
• Minneapolis Metro Transit plans to shift bus fleet to all-electric (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• New York Governor Cuomo calls for 100% carbon-neutral electricity by 2040 via Green New Deal (PV Magazine)
• VIDEO Governor Cuomo Unveils Agenda for First 100 Days (Governor of NY)
• NY Governor Wants Zero-Carbon Electricity by 2040: A “politically easy” move or an ambitious target? (Green Tech Media):
  
  Though Cuomo’s agenda said the target will make New York “the most progressive state in the nation in moving to renewables,” Schauer said the New York target is "vastly less aggressive" than California’s suite of policies, which include a legally binding target of 60 percent renewable by 2030 and 100 percent carbon-free by 2045 target.
• The Governor's Right to Call for a New York Green New Deal, But Here’s What It Should Look Like (Gotham Gazette)
• California is first state to mandate zero-emission bus fleet (AP):
  
  Existing state and federal subsidies are available to help transit agencies absorb some of the higher costs of carbon-free buses, along with money from the state’s settlement with Volkswagen over the German automaker’s emission-cheating software.
• California Regulators Vote to Require All Transit Agency Buses Produce Zero Emissions by 2040 (Earther)
• California bus agencies ordered to make fleets emission-free (San Francisco Chronicle):
  
  “This is a huge deal,” said Adrian Martinez, an attorney for the conservation group EarthJustice. He said he expects airport shuttles, delivery and garbage trucks to be next on the regulatory list.
• California Requires New City Buses to Be Electric by 2029 (NY Times)
• Mass. Is Joining With 8 Other States And D.C. To Try To Curb Transportation Emissions (WBUR-Boston)

'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 is undoing much more than Obama’s legacy. He's trying to destroy government regulation as we know it. (New Republic)
• Hot or Not?: Which 2018 climate trend is here to stay? (Grist)
• That Global Warming Hiatus? It Never Happened. Two New Studies Explain Why. (Inside Climate News)
• Companies are seriously underestimating how climate change will affect business (Quartz)
• EU agrees to ban throw-away plastics to limit ocean pollution (Reuters)
• Black lung disease is still killing miners. The coal industry doesn't want to hear it (Guardian UK)
• Wetlands, lakes would lose protections under Michigan state legislature bill (AP)
• What L.A. can learn from Minneapolis’ ban on single-family zoning (LA Times)
• Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy? (op-ed, NY Times)
• California Knew the Carr Wildfire Could Happen. It Failed to Prevent it. (Pro Publica)
• Cap-and-Trade for Cars Is Coming to the Northeast (E&E News)
• Wolverine sues 3M over PFAS contamination (MLive)
• Another outage at Mississippi nuclear plant raises concerns (AP)
• Colorado’s Largest Battery Comes Online As The State Pivots To Cleaner Energy (Colorado Public Radio)
• Great Pacific garbage patch $20m cleanup fails to collect plastic (Guardian UK)
• COP24: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Katowice (Carbon Brief)
• VIDEO: 15-Year-old Greta Thunberg: "Change is Coming Whether you Like it or Not" (Climate Creek)
• 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: California, New York, Environment, Minnesota, Dept. of Defense, Democrats, Republicans, Green News, Reuters, Donald Trump, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Transportation, Electric vehicles, Andrew Cuomo, Tim Kaine, Ryan Zinke, Hurricane Michael, Green New Deal, Greta Thunberg