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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New Orleans braces for extreme rain, dangerous flooding and a test of their levee system; FEMA warns it is understaffed as hurricane season gets underway; Climate activist Tom Steyer jumps into crowded 2020 Presidential race; PLUS: World's most powerful oil cartel is afraid of teen climate activists... 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): Adapting to climate change is going to cost Florida a lot. Who's going to pay for it?; Trump Tries to Gaslight Planet Earth; Trump threatens veto on defense bill that targets PFAS 'forever chemicals'; The Colorado River needs a long-term plan for drought; The climate change policy with the most potential is the most neglected; Throwing food away --- or just burning it --- counts as recycling in bill awaiting Murphy's approval... PLUS: David Attenborough: polluting planet may become as reviled as slavery... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• VIDEO: Environmental journalist Emily Atkin skewers Trump and EPA chief Andrew Wheeler for speech celebrating Trump's "environmental leadership" (All In With Chris Hayes)
• New Orleans braces for extreme rain and dangerous flooding:
• Barry forms and is predicted to unleash ‘dangerous’ hurricane conditions in Louisiana on Saturday (Washington Post)
• Tropical Storm Barry develops in the Gulf, threatening more epic flooding in Louisiana (CNN):
  
  A dangerous cyclone spinning toward the Gulf Coast intensified Thursday to become Tropical Storm Barry. It's the first tropical storm to threaten the US this year. But before Barry makes landfall --- possibly Saturday in Louisiana --- it'll likely be a full-blown hurricane, meaning winds will top 74 mph. But it's not the wind that makes this storm so treacherous. It's the colossal rainfall and massive storm surges.
• New Orleans’ Achilles Heel: A Hurricane Storm Surge During a Mississippi River Flood? (Weather Underground)
• Database showing lower New Orleans levee heights incorrect, officials say; overtopping unlikely (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
• VIDEO: Mississippi River expected to crest at 19 feet (WNGO New Orleans)
• VIDEO: Hurricane watches issued for parts of Louisiana (CBS News)
• Increasing risk of compound flooding from storm surge and rainfall for major US cities (Nature, 2015):
  
  When storm surge and heavy precipitation co-occur, the potential for flooding in low-lying coastal areas is often much greater than from either in isolation...We also provide evidence that the number of compound events has increased significantly over the past century at many of the major coastal cities.
• This Spring's Flooding Crisis Is Part of a Bigger Pattern for the U.S. (Earther, 5/30/19)
• FEMA staff stretched thin as hurricane season begins in earnest:
• FEMA admits it’s ‘short a few thousand employees’ as hurricane season begins (Climate Progress):
  
  [U]nder the Trump administration, the agency has bled staff at every level. Gaynor himself is an acting administrator, after former FEMA Administrator Brock Long departed earlier this year following spending controversies. While the agency continues to suffer, disasters are adding up. Heavy flooding and tornadoes have upended parts of the Midwest over the past few months. Meanwhile, last year’s wildfire season left states like California devastated — and fires are already raging this year.
• Despite 2,000 reserve vacancies, FEMA insists it’s ‘ready every day of the year’ (Federal News Network)
• VIDEO: Assessing FEMA’s Readiness for Future Disasters (House Committee on Homeland Security)
• Billionaire Tom Steyer enters 2020 Democratic presidential race:
• VIDEO: Tom Steyer: 'Fundamental Change' - Campaign 2020 (Washington Post)
• Billionaire anti-Trump activist Tom Steyer enters 2020 race with pledge to spend $100 million (CNBC)
• Billionaire and climate activist Tom Steyer is running for president. His messages sound … familiar (Grist)
• Tom Steyer, We Welcome You With Folded Arms (Jamelle Bouie, op-ed, NY Times):
  
  You have no constituency other than yourself. There are plenty of better things for you to do with your money.
• OPEC fears influence of teen climate activists:
• Climate campaigners 'greatest threat' to oil sector: OPEC (Agence France-Presse):
  
  Mohammed Barkindo said that as extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis became more common, "there is a growing mass mobilisation of world opinion... against oil". "Civil society is being misled to believe oil is the cause of climate change," he said.
• OPEC head: Climate activists are the ‘greatest threat’ to oil industry (Grist):
  
  This is, of course, heartening news for climate activists. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede famous for starting a movement of youth strikes calling for climate action, thanked OPEC for the compliment.
• ‘Our biggest compliment yet’: Greta Thunberg thanks OPEC for criticism (CNBC)
• London Stock Exchange relabels oil and gas producers as 'non-renewable energy':
• 'Oil' and ‘gas’ become dirty words in FTSE rebranding (Financial Times)
• Gas and oil firms reclassified under non-renewables on London Stock Exchange (Guardian UK):
  
  Oil and gas companies listed on the London Stock Exchange have been reclassified under a non-renewable energy category in a move designed to distinguish between heavily polluting companies and greener producers.

'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

• David Attenborough: polluting planet may become as reviled as slavery (Guardian UK)
• Adapting to climate change is going to cost Florida a lot. Who’s going to pay for it? (Miami Herald)
• AOC, Sanders Call for ‘Climate Emergency’ Declaration in Congress (Inside Climate News)
• White House won't review climate science before election (E&E News)
• Climate Fwd: Following the Money That Undermines Climate Science (NY Times)
• Can Lindsey Graham Help Improve The GOP’s Image On The Environment? (McClatchy DC)
• Trump Tries to Gaslight Planet Earth (New Republic)
• Trump threatens veto on defense bill that targets PFAS 'forever chemicals' (The Hill)
• The Colorado River needs a long-term plan for drought (High Country News)
• The climate change policy with the most potential is the most neglected (Vox)
• In an Era of Extreme Weather, Concerns Grow Over Dam Safety (Yale e360)
• Throwing food away — or just burning it — counts as recycling in bill awaiting Murphy’s approval (NJ.com)
• PG&E knew of wildfire risks for years, WSJ reports, citing company documents (Utility Dive)
• 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

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).

                 

Article Categories: Louisiana, Environment, FEMA, Green News, Natural gas, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Election 2020, Tom Steyer, Greta Thunberg