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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Trump gives a speech to tout his environmental accomplishments. Yes, that really happened; PLUS: Record heat waves in Europe and the Arctic make June 2019 the hottest June ever recorded globally… All that and even some good news in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
7/9/2019
‘Green News Report’ – July 9, 2019 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – July 9, 2019 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Planting a trillion trees could be the “most effective solution” to climate change; US renewable energy transition to move faster than anticipated by 2022; Sanders and AOC move to declare climate crisis an official emergency; Indonesia returning 57 containers of developed world’s waste; US insurance company has just announced it will stop supporting coal… PLUS: Oregon governor signs laws banning plastic bags, straws… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- June 2019 hottest ever recorded, globally:
- Record-breaking temperatures for June (Copernicus Climate Change Service)
- Last month was the hottest June ever recorded “” as climate groups warn of an ‘ecological emergency’ (CNBC):
Data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which is tasked with providing comprehensive climate information for the EU, showed global average temperatures for June 2019 were the highest on record for the month.
- Heat Wave Nudged the Planet to Its Hottest June, European Forecasters Say (NY Times):
“June 2019 will likely be the warmest or second-warmest June in all the global temperature data sets since records began in the mid-1800s,” Mr. Hausfather said. “This further boosts an already near-record-warm start to the year, putting us on track for 2019 to be the second or third-warmest year on record.”
- Europe’s historic heat wave made 5x more likely due to global warming:
- Human contribution to record-breaking June 2019 heatwave in France (World Weather Attribution)
- Climate Change Fingerprints Were All Over Europe’s Latest Heat Wave, Study Finds (Inside Climate News):
Worryingly, they said, extreme heat waves are happening more frequently than projected by climate models, which could be a deadly trend.
- Climate change made European heatwave at least five times likelier (Guardian UK):
The record-breaking heatwave that struck France and other European nations in June was made at least five ““ and possibly 100 ““ times more likely by climate change, scientists have calculated. Such heatwaves are also about 4C hotter than a century ago, the researchers say. Furthermore, the heatwaves hitting Europe are more frequent and more severe than climate models have predicted.
- Alaska record heat shatters all-time high temperature record:
- Baked Alaska: record heat fuels wildfires and sparks personal fireworks ban (Guardian UK):
Alaska is trapped in a kind of hot feedback loop, as the arctic is heating up much faster than the rest of the planet. Ocean surface temperatures upwards of 10F hotter than average have helped to warm up the state’s coasts. When Bering and Chukchi sea ice collapsed and melted months earlier than normal this spring, the University of Alaska climate specialist Rick Thoman characterized the water as “baking”.
- VIDEO: Alaska heat wave sets record-breaking temperatures (CBS News)
- Record-crushing heat torches Alaska as Anchorage hits all-time high of 90 (Washington Post)
- Anchorage wasn’t the only place to break an all-time record (KTUU)
- Washington DC hit with “life-threatening” heavy rainfall event:
- How and why the D.C. area was deluged by a month’s worth of rain in an hour Monday (Washington Post):
The morning’s very heavy rain stemmed from a conspiracy of circumstances: (1) A stalled front; (2) an area of low pressure that caused moist air to spiral or converge over the D.C. region; (3) an exceptionally humid air mass and (4) slow movement of storm cells.
- Heavy Rain Floods White House, Traps Motorists (US News)
- The D.C. Area Got a Month’s Worth of Rain in One Hour (Slate)
- Trump touts his environmental accomplishments (yes, really):
- VIDEO: President Trump Remarks on Environmental Leadership (C-SPAN)
- VIDEO: Environment Advocates Criticize President Donald Trump’s Climate Record (All In with Chris Hayes, MSNBC)
- Fact Check: Trump’s Misleading Claims About His Environmental Record (NY Times):
President Trump selectively talked up what he said were achievements in ensuring air and water quality, declining carbon emissions and Superfund cleanups.
- Fact Check: Trump’s environmental rhetoric versus his record (Politico):
[A] close look at his rhetoric reveals he is taking credit for pollution reductions that have taken place under previous presidents “” and undertaking an aggressive agenda of weakening air and water pollution rules…The speech comes amid a reelection effort in which Trump’s environmental record is a prime point of attack for Democrats who have identified climate change as one of their signature issues.
- Donald Trump’s five most dangerous attacks on the environment (Guardian UK)
- VIDEO: Fox’s Shepard Smith Cuts Off a Trump Speech on Climate to Fact Check Him in Real Time (Mediaite)
- US air quality is slipping after years of improvement (AP)
- The White House Denied Me Access to Trump’s Environmental Speech (Rebecca Leber, Mother Jones)
- Trump’s “environmental leadership” speech spurred by 2020 campaign pressure:
- A New Poll Shows That Trump’s Handling of Climate Change Is Deeply Unpopular (Mother Jones)
- Trump Talks Up ‘America’s Environmental Leadership’ in Climate Speech (NY Times):
A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and had reviewed internal campaign polling, said that the numbers showed Mr. Trump was “never going to get” the type of voter who feels passionately about tackling climate change. But, the official said, there were moderate voters who like the president’s economic policies who “just want to know that he’s being responsible” on environmental issues. And that is who the speech will be aimed at convincing.
- Why Donald Trump Suddenly Decided to Talk About the Environment (New Yorker):
Trying to parse the nonsense of Trump’s speech sentence by sentence is silly, so concentrate instead on its underlying meaning: the oil companies clearly won a crucial battle with Trump’s election, postponing their moment of reckoning. (Less so the coal barons, whose decline was already too far advanced). But they clearly sense that they are losing the war, and more decisively than before.
- Lacking support from voters on climate, Trump tests 2020 environment messaging (Climate Progress)
‘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
- Billionaire anti-Trump activist Tom Steyer enters 2020 race with pledge to spend $100 million (CNBC)
- Ravaged by Drought, a Honduran Village Faces a Choice: Pray for Rain or Migrate (Inside Climate News)
- Planting a trillion trees could be the “most effective solution” to climate change, study says (CBS News)
- US renewable energy transition to move faster than anticipated by 2022: FERC report (Utility Dive)
- The Toxic-Gas Catastrophe Hiding Beneath Your Home (The New Republic)
- It’s New York vs. California in a New Climate Race. Who Will Win? (NY Times)
- Sanders and AOC Move To Declare Climate Crisis Official Emergency (Guardian UK)
- Indonesia returning 57 containers of developed world’s waste (Washington Post)
- Health Groups Sue Over Trump Rollback Of Obama-Era Emissions Rule (The Hill)
- A US insurance company has just announced it will stop supporting coal (Climate Progress)
- Oregon governor signs laws banning plastic bags, straws (Waste Dive)
- 23 Governors Join California in Opposing Trump’s Fuel Efficiency Freeze (EcoWatch)
- The architect of many of Trump’s pro-coal plans is leaving the EPA (Climate Progress)
- Ohio universities expand clean energy degree programs amid rising enrollment (Midwest Energy News)
- VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
- This Is How Human Extinction Could Play Out (Rolling Stone)
- SEJ Backgrounder: Green New Deal Proposes Sweeping Economic Transformation (Society of Environmental Journalists)
- Explainer: The ‘Green New Deal’: Mobilizing for a just, prosperous, and sustainable economy (New Consensus)
- 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.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
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