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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Tragedy in Mexico as leaking pipeline explodes; Trump's government shutdown threatens to make U.S. wildfires even worse; Federal judge halts permits for seismic testing during shutdown; Coal ash waste contaminating groundwater in at least 22 states; PLUS: Australia's historic heat wave is melting roads and decimating wildlife... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Greenland's ice melt nears 'tipping point'; U.S. military report warns climate change threatens key bases; Warm pole, cold continent: Polar Vortex settles on Eastern North America; 3 years later, no one is in jail over Flint tainted water; Critics slam WOTUS economics: 'In theory, pigs could fly'; Scientists warn of climate 'time bomb' for world's groundwater; Labor promises to 'supercharge' hydrogen industry as green groups say 'no role for coal'; Judge says uninsulated power conductors caused California fires... PLUS: The Trump Shutdown is an environmental crisis... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Death toll rises in pipeline explosion in Central Mexico:
• Death toll rises in Mexico pipeline blast, amid reports leak was detected hours before explosion (Reuters):
  
  Mexico's state oil firm, Pemex, did not close the valve at a leaking gasoline pipeline when first notified because it was not initially thought to be an "important" leak, Mexico's security minister said on Sunday.
• Mexico pipeline explosion killed 89, Pemex defends response (Reuters)
• Mexico's anti-fuel theft policy faces scrutiny after deadly pipeline explosion (ABC Australia)
• Deadly Mexico Pipeline Disaster Poses Major Test for New President (NY Times)
• Australia's historic extreme heat wave drags on:
• Bushfire destroys wilderness retreat as emergency crews look ahead to hot, windy weather (ABC Australia)
• ‘Intense hot spell’ forecast in run-up to Australia Day (News.com)
• ‘It’s like hell here’: Australia bakes as record temperatures nudge 50C (Guardian UK):
  
  [I]n the middle of the day it takes seconds to blister a dog’s paw or child’s foot. In Mildura, in northern Victoria, last week gardeners burned their hands when they picked up their tools...
• Bureau of Meteorology calls run of prolonged heatwaves ‘unusual’ in length and intensity (News.com)
• Extreme temperatures burn stone fruit from inside out, causing severe loss (ABC Australia)
• Roads melting as Australian heat wave drags on (CanIndia)
• How one heatwave killed 'a third' of a bat species in Australia (BBC)
• Australian state to pump oxygen into rivers as fish die (Phys.org)
• 'Drought, climate change and mismanagement': What experts think caused the death of a million Menindee fish (ABC Australia)
• Trump's government shutdown halts wildfire prevention:
• US shutdown stalls training, other prep for wildfire season (AP):
  
  The winter months are critical for wildfire managers who use the break from the flames to prepare for the next onslaught, but much of that effort has ground to a halt on U.S. land because employees are furloughed. Firefighting training courses are being canceled from Tennessee to Oregon, piles of dead trees are untended in federal forests and controlled burns to thin dry vegetation aren’t getting done.
• Will the government shutdown make it difficult to suppress wildfires? (Wildfire Today)
• Shutdown threatens to make this year's fire seasons even worse (Oregon Mail Tribune)
• VIDEO: Shutdown puts Colorado's forests at greater risk for wildfires, expert says (CBS-Denver)
• Government Shutdown Having Major Impact On Wildfire Prevention Efforts In California, Officials Say (Capitol Radio)
• Critical Northern Arizona Wildfire Prevention Delayed as Government Shutdown Continues (Arizona Public Radio)
• Toxic coal ash waste contaminating groundwater in at least 22 states:
• Coal Ash Is Contaminating Groundwater in at least 22 States, Utility Reports Show (Inside Climate News):
  
  At dozens of power plants across the country, including many in the Southeast, utilities have found coal-ash pollution severe enough to force them to propose cleanup plans. Those plans will likely become the next front in a decades-long battle over how to manage one of the nation's largest industrial waste streams—one tainted by toxic heavy metals.
• Coal ash pollutants found in groundwater at 11 Georgia sites, including Plant McIntosh in Rincon (Savannah Morning News)
• Utilities Admit Coal Plants in 22 States are Violating Federal and State Pollution Standards by Leaking Toxic Chemicals into Groundwater (EarthJustice press release)
• Report: Texas coal power plants leaching toxic pollutants into groundwater (Texas Tribune)
• Mass pollution at Texas coal plants poses major threat to human health and the environment (Climate Progress)
• Federal judge temporarily blocks seismic testing permitting in the Atlantic:
• U.S. judge blocks Atlantic seismic oil permitting during shutdown (Reuters):
  
  A federal court judge on Friday ruled that the federal government cannot process seismic testing permits for offshore oil drilling during the ongoing government shutdown, dealing a blow Trump administration’s energy agenda.
• Judge blocks Trump administration from processing permits for offshore seismic tests (McClatchy)
• Judge Bars Seismic Permits During Government Shutdown (Southern Environmental Law Center press release):
  
  Government lawyers said they could not properly respond to Wilson’s request because of the shutdown. However, Wilson noted that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had issued a directive for workers to keep processing a variety of matters needed to move forward with oil drilling. That set up an unfair situation, Wilson argued, of allowing the government to move forward on a controversial project while also sidestepping legal challenges.

'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

• Greenland’s Melting Ice Nears a ‘Tipping Point,’ Scientists Say (NY Times)
• U.S. Military Report Warns Climate Change Threatens Key Bases (Inside Climate News)
• Warm Pole, Cold Continent: Polar Vortex Settles on Eastern North America (Climate Crocks)
• The Trump Shutdown Is an Environmental Crisis (The New Republic)
• Davos elite looks to ‘Globalisation 4.0’ to stem climate change (Climate Change News)
• Judge says uninsulated power conductors caused California fires (NBC News)
• 3 years later, no one is in jail over Flint tainted water (AP)
• Critics slam WOTUS economics: 'In theory, pigs could fly' (E&E News)
• Labor promises to 'supercharge' hydrogen industry as green groups say 'no role for coal' (Guardian UK)
• Scientists warn of climate 'time bomb' for world's groundwater (Phys.org)
• VIDEO: Potholer on the Conservative Solution to Climate Change (Climate Crocks)
• Are We Living Through Climate Change’s Worst-Case Scenario? (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: Texas, Georgia, National Security, Mexico, Environment, Dept. of Defense, Democrats, Green News, Coal, Oil, Climate change, Extreme weather, Australia, Agriculture, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Water