Follow @GreenNewsReport...

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

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New Orleans dodges a bullet, but Hurricane Barry's impacts are not over --- by a long shot; US marks wettest 12-month period on record --- again; PLUS: Major blackout in New York City exposes infrastructure vulnerabilities... 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): This Will Be a Sweltering Century in California and the Nation; Interior to move most of Bureau of Land Management’s D.C. staff out west as part of larger reorganization push; Scientists Flee USDA As Research Agencies Move To Kansas City Area; Los Angeles is finally ditching coal — and replacing it with another polluting fuel; Could Climate Change Spark a Financial Crisis? Candidates Warn Fed It’s a Risk... PLUS: “Death Spiral.” How A Carbon Tax Could End Some Coal Towns … Or Fund A New Future... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• New Orleans dodges a bullet from Hurricane Barry, as heavy rain arrives:
  • Deluge in Louisiana delayed but not denied as Barry’s perplexing precipitation finally delivers (Washington Post)
  • Barry: What's Next as Storm Moves North (Weather Underground)
  • Barry Impacts: Flooding Swamps Arkansas Police Station and Animal Shelter; Washes Out Highways (Weather Channel)
  • Weakened Barry still poses flood, tornado risks (AP):
    
    New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Sunday the city was “beyond lucky” that rainfall there fell well short of early predictions of a deluge that could overwhelm the city’s pumping systems. “We were spared,” she said at a news conference, while noting the city was ready to help nearby parishes hit harder.
  • Why Barry dropped much less rain on the Gulf coast than forecasters expected (Vox):
    
    We can anticipate where storms will go, but their rain and wind are far more difficult to predict.
  • Hurricane Barry: Lessons From a Disaster That Wasn’t (City Lab):
    
    Climate change will not only put stress on our infrastructure, but will make our decisions about how to use that infrastructure more difficult.
  • Barry Leaves Its Mark in the Gulf of Mexico by Cooling Down Water Temperatures (Weather Underground)

• U.S. just had its wettest 12-month period on record --- again:
• U.S. has its wettest 12 months on record – again (NOAA):
  
  It's the third consecutive time in 2019 (April, May and June) the past 12-month precipitation record has hit an all-time high.
• The U.S. Just Had Its Wettest 12 Months on Record (Again) (Weather Channel)
• Slow-Moving Hurricanes are Getting More Common (Weather Underground)
• This Spring's Flooding Crisis Is Part of a Bigger Pattern for the U.S. (Earther, 5/30/19)
• High-tide "nuisance" flooding has doubled in recent years:
• ‘Sunny-day flooding’ is projected to put parts of the US underwater for at least 100 days per year. Here’s what the Gulf and East coasts should expect (Business Insider):
  
  As sea levels rise, sunny-day flooding — which occurs when tides are high, rather than during an abnormal weather event — is on the rise as well...Oceans along US coasts have risen nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters) since 1920 (12 inches when you factor in sinking land). That has led high-tide flooding to occur twice as often now as it did nearly two decades ago, according to a recent report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• NOAA Report: Today’s Damaging Floods Will Be Tomorrow’s High Tides (Weather Underground)
• ‘Sunny day’ high tide floods are on the rise along U.S. coasts (Science News)
• U.S. ties record for number of high tide flooding days in 2018 (NOAA)
• High-tide flooding is only going to get worse, NOAA says (CNN):
  
  NOAA has identified more than 40 locations where high-tide flooding trends reveal "significant acceleration" along the West and East coasts. The data suggests that coastal impacts will soon become "chronic rather than sporadic."
• Monsoon rains and floods force 2 million to flee in South Asia:
• Monsoon floods displace millions in India (BBC):
  
  More than three million people have been displaced across north and north-eastern India amid monsoon rain that has cost lives and destroyed homes. Storms and floods have ripped through areas of Nepal, Bangladesh and India, killing more than 130 people.
• Red alert in Kerala, extremely heavy rains expected as monsoon strengthens (India Today)
• More than 150 killed as monsoon floods sweep away homes and people (CBS News)
• Floods and landslides kill more than 100 people in Nepal, India and Bangladesh (CNN)
• NYC blackout likely caused by failure of aging equipment:
• Revenge of the Power Grid (The Atlantic):
  
  One way to mitigate these dangers is to make utility infrastructure less susceptible to single points of failure.
• A Burning 13,000-Volt Cable Touched Off Manhattan Blackout, Con Edison Says (NY Times):
  
  Dark smoke billowing from manhole covers in the street drew the attention of passers-by and city officials, but Con Edison’s executive initially dismissed the burning cable as too routine to have played a significant role in the blackout...Con Edison’s president, Timothy Cawley, said in an interview on Monday that the fault in that cable set off a chain of failures in a system that is designed to contain and circumvent minor problems.
• ConEd: Failed relay systems, not transmission equipment, caused NYC blackout (Utility Dive)
• Con Edison apologizes for Manhattan power blackout as governor orders investigation (CNBC)
• VIDEO: NYC Blackout: Con Ed Releases New Information On Cause Of Power Outage (CBS-NY)
• VIDEO: NYC Blackout: Cuomo Threatens To Strip Con Ed’s License; Con Ed Says ‘Protective Relay Systems’ Failed (CBS-NY):
  
  “There is no God-given right that says Con Ed must be the utility company,” Cuomo told Kramer. “They can be replaced.”...“This system was supposed to be designed with redundancies. We paid Con Ed to design that system. They are not a charity,” Cuomo said.
• VIDEO: See the NYC blackout captured in a timelapse video (Curbed NY)

'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

• This Will Be a Sweltering Century in California and the Nation (KQED)
• Interior to move most of Bureau of Land Management’s D.C. staff out west as part of larger reorganization push (Washington Post)
• Scientists Flee USDA As Research Agencies Move To Kansas City Area (The HIll)
• Los Angeles is finally ditching coal — and replacing it with another polluting fuel (LA Times)
• “Death Spiral.” How A Carbon Tax Could End Some Coal Towns … Or Fund A New Future (ReSource)
• Maine Enacts Beneficial Electrification Law; State to Issue RFP for Pilot Projects (Microgrid Knowledge)
• Could Climate Change Spark a Financial Crisis? Candidates Warn Fed It’s a Risk (Inside Climate News)
• ‘Toxic Stew’ Stirred Up by Disasters Poses Long-Term Danger: Research (NY Times)
• State Orders Chevron to Stop Massive Crude Oil Release From Kern County Well (KQED)
• 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: New York, Louisiana, Environment, Green News, Climate change, Extreme weather, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, India, Nepal, Andrew Cuomo, New Orleans, Infrastructure, Hurricane Barry