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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Climate change gets a moment at the Nevada Democratic Debate; Natural gas pipeline protesters blockade Canadian rail lines; Climate impact of oil and gas production worse than previously known; PLUS: Big oil company drops Alberta tar sands mine... 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): JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human race; Climate Change Steals Billion Tons Of Water From Colorado River; Anxiety creeps into oil-dependent Alaska as banks step back from Arctic investment; Oil and gas industry rewards US lawmakers who oppose environmental protections; Climate change could be a 'catastrophic' national security threat, report warns... PLUS: Colombia was the deadliest place on Earth for environmental activists. It's gotten worse.... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Climate change gets a moment at the Democratic presidential debate in NV:
• AUDIO: The Dem Presidential CLIMATE Debate in Vegas You May Not Have Noticed: 'BradCast' 2/21/2020 (The Brad Blog)
• VIDEO and Transcript: Democratic Debate in Las Vegas, Nevada (Rev.com)
• Climate was public enemy No. 2 - after Mike Bloomberg - at Nevada's Democratic debate (Grist)
• Climate Change Sparked Note of Consensus in Raucous Democratic Debate (E&E News)
• The Democrats Miss Another Chance to Actually Debate Their Positions on Climate Change (Inside Climate News):
  
  Reminiscent of the unanswerable question the Democrats faced in their first debate last June-"Would your plan save Miami?"-Ralston's query drove home the pitfalls of applying the bromide "all politics is local" to the discussion of solutions for a planetary problem.
• Fracking ban: Where the candidates stand (Washington Post)
• Oil and gas production's impact on climate worse than previously thought:
• Preindustrial 14CH4 indicates greater anthropogenic fossil CH4 emissions (Nature)
• Oil and gas firms 'have had far worse climate impact than thought' (Guardian UK):
  
  Although the research will add to pressure on fossil fuel companies, scientists said there was cause for hope because it showed a big extra benefit could come from tighter regulation of the industry and a faster shift towards renewable energy.
• Oil and Gas May Be a Far Bigger Climate Threat Than We Knew (NY Times):
  
  Atmospheric concentrations of methane have more than doubled from preindustrial times. A New York Times investigation into "super emitter" sites last year revealed vast quantities of methane being released from oil wells and other energy facilities instead of being captured.
• Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas May Be Significantly Underestimated (E&E News)
• Silver linings: Coronavirus epidemic depressing oil stocks, reducing China's emissions:
• Analysis: Coronavirus has temporarily reduced China’s CO2 emissions by a quarter (Carbon Brief):
  
  All told, the measures to contain coronavirus have resulted in reductions of 15% to 40% in output across key industrial sectors. This is likely to have wiped out a quarter or more of the country’s CO2 emissions over the past two weeks, the period when activity would normally have resumed after the Chinese new-year holiday.
• Coronavirus cuts China’s greenhouse gas emissions by a quarter (Independent UK):
  
  Reducing industrial working hours and keeping construction sites and shops closed has curbed the use of coal and cut output of steel products in the country, which produces about 27 per cent of global greenhouse gases...[C]oal use at the country’s power stations has hit a four-year low, and oil refinery operating rates in Shandong province are at their lowest level since 2015, statistics show.
• Global stock markets plunge on coronavirus fears (BBC)
• Energy Stocks Fall as Oil Prices Are Rocked by Spread of Coronavirus (The Street)
• Finland government research report warns oil sector increasingly "unsustainable":
• Government Agency Warns Global Oil Industry Is on the Brink of a Meltdown (Vice):
  
  Despite offering a scathing critique of conventional peak oil theory, the report arrives at the shock conclusion that the economic viability of the entire global oil market could come undone within the next few years... “We optimize around growth, which requires energy which requires carbon energy,” he said. “We have created approaching 300 trillion dollars in financial claims, on a finite amount of high quality resources... All in all, we’ve created too many claims for future energy and resources to support.”
• Report warns oil industry’s increasingly unsustainable economics could derail global financial system (The Mint Magazine)
• VIDEO: Cramer sees oil stocks in the 'death knell phase,' says they are the new tobacco (CNBC):
  
  "I'm done with fossil fuels ... they're just done. We're starting to see divestment all over the world," Cramer said. "You're seeing divestiture by a lot of different funds. It's going to be a parade. It's going to be a parade that says, 'Look, these are tobacco and we're not going to own them.'"
• Canada: Pipeline protesters blockade rail lines, arrests underway:
• Canada: police clear rail blockade by Indigenous anti-pipeline activists (Guardian UK)
• Canada at 'tipping point' over Wet'suwet'en land dispute (Al Jazeera)
• Canadian police had 'no authority' to search pipeline activists, says watchdog (Guardian UK)
• Canadian Pipeline Protests Shut Down Train Service Across the Country (Earther)
• VIDEO: The Wet’suwet’en Fight Against New Pipeline Spreads Across Canada with Blockades & Occupations (Democracy Now!, 2/13/20)
• Financial institutions ditching Alberta's tar sands
• Global Financial Giants Swear Off Funding an Especially Dirty Fuel (NY Times):
  
  They are among the latest banks, pension funds and global investment houses to start pulling away from fossil-fuel investments amid growing pressure to show they are doing something to fight climate change. “If you look at how destructive oil sands can be, there’s a very strong rationale,” Armando Senra, head of BlackRock’s iShares Americas funds, said in an interview, saying that the oil sands, along with coal, are “the worst offenders, if you want, from a climate perspective.”
• As Teck oil sands mine hopes for okay from Canada's Trudeau, 20 other projects on hold (Reuters)
• Canadian mining company drops proposed tar sands mine
• Canada’s Teck Resources withdraws application for controversial mine days before government decision (Washington Post):
  
  “Global capital markets are changing rapidly and investors and customers are increasingly looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in place that reconciles resource development and climate change, in order to produce the cleanest possible products...In that context, it is now evident that there is no constructive path forward for the project.”
• In a Stunning Reversal, Company Realizes Its Giant Oil Sands Project Is a Poor Investment (Earther)
• VIDEO: Teck pulls out of $20B oilsands project (CBC)
• Teck Resources Pulls The Plug On $15.5 Billion Frontier Oil Sands Project In Alberta (Clean Technica)
• Teck pulling out of oilsands project ‘another straw on the camel’s back’ for Alberta economy: think tank (Global News)
• Canada Oil-Sands Plan Collapses Over Politics and Economics (NY Times)

'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

• JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human race (Guardian UK)
• Climate Change Steals Billion Tons Of Water From Colorado River (Washington Post)
  

• Anxiety creeps into oil-dependent Alaska as banks step back from Arctic investment (Alaska Public Radio)
• Oil and gas industry rewards US lawmakers who oppose environmental protections – study (Guardian UK)
• The Cherokee Nation Becomes First US Tribe to Store Seeds in Svalbard Doomsday Vault (Earther)
• Climate change could be a 'catastrophic' national security threat, report warns (USA Today)
• Plastic bag tax raises more than £2m for Northern Ireland environment (BBC)
• New Study Projects Severe Water Shortages in the Colorado River Basin (Inside Climate News)
• As Cap-And-Trade Bill Moves Forward, Republicans Head For Exits (Oregon Public Radio)
• Colombia was the deadliest place on Earth for environmental activists. It's gotten worse. (NBC)
• Here's the Pro-Bernie Climate Scientist Op-Ed the Washington Post Wouldn't Run (Earther)
• JPMorgan Chase Takes Baby Step Toward Curbing Fossil Fuel Loans (Washington Post)
• Solar Power Just Miles from the Arctic Circle? In Icy Nordic Climes, It’s Become the Norm (Inside Climate News)
• Supreme Court Wades Into Battle Over Atlantic Coast Pipeline (AP)
• What Does '12 Years to Act on Climate Change' (Now 11 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• 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: Environment, Green News, Fracking, Canada, Oil, Climate change, Extreme weather, China, Mining, Justin Trudeau, Native Americans, Election 2020, Finland