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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Crashing oil prices have ominous implications for oil companies and oil-producing countries; Melting ice caps put sea level rise on track for scientists' worst-case scenario; Democratic Senators demand corporate climate action in exchange for coronavirus bailout; PLUS: More perverse silver linings, as COVID-19 shutdown reduces water pollution... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tackling the growing threat of water conflict; Oil and gas companies want to drill within a half-mile of Canyonlands National Park; 'A test of governments.' Oil industry faces worst glut ever; Coronavirus creating a solar industry 'crisis'; Global banks 'failing miserably' on climate crisis by funneling trillions into fossil fuels; Nuclear power startup submits first advanced reactor license application in US as NRC moves to streamline reviews; Coronavirus slows developing nations’ plans to step up climate action in 2020... PLUS: Coronavirus shows us America is broken... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Perverse silver linings: COVID19 shutdown reduces water pollution in Venice:
• CORRECTION: As Italy quarantines over coronavirus, misleading reports of swans and dolphins in Venice canals go viral (The Hill):
  
  As National Geographic reports, "The swans in the viral posts regularly appear in the canals of Burano, a small island in the greater Venice metropolitan area, where the photos were taken. The “Venetian” dolphins were filmed at a port in Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of miles away."
• Coronavirus: Air pollution and CO2 fall rapidly as virus spreads (BBC)
• VIDEO: Coronavirus: Venice canals clearer after lockdown (BBC)
• Coronavirus: Satellite data shows Italy's pollution plummet amid COVID-19 lockdown (EuroNews)
• How Pollution Aggravates the Impact of Coronavirus (US News)::
  
  The experiences in China, Iran and Italy show that investing in healthy living environments will prevent future loss of lives and lifestyles.
• COVID19 crisis also an opportunity to take bold action on climate change:
• Don't let coronavirus stall climate action, warns architect of Paris deal (Reuters):
  
  “In a way, it’s a lesson: viruses don’t respect borders, climate change doesn’t respect borders,” Tubiana, who continues to closely track climate diplomacy, told an online briefing. “If we do not manage the climate crisis it will be the same.”
• One more way the world wasn’t prepared for coronavirus: Air pollution (Grist)
• Coronavirus: Air pollution and CO2 fall rapidly as virus spreads (BBC):
  
  In the coming months, governments will have a chance to alter that outcome. They could insist, for instance, that any bailout of airlines would be tied to far more stringent reductions in aviation emissions. "Governments now have to be really cautious on how they re-stimulate their economies, mindful of not locking in fossil fuels again," said Prof Le Quéré.
• Coronavirus shutdowns are lowering greenhouse gas emissions; history shows they’ll roar back (LA Times):
  
  The slide in emissions will be temporary, experts say. What’s more, scientists and environmentalists worry the pandemic will at the same time undermine government and industry’s resolve to cut emissions in the long term.
• The Coronavirus Is A Wake-Up Call For Climate Change (Common Dreams):
  
  If the world can do this for one virus, it can begin to do this for the even more catastrophic-and predictable-danger of climate change.
• Coronavirus should be a wake-up call to our treatment of the animal world (The Hill)
• Democratic senators demand corporate bailouts require climate action:
• Democrats want climate action included in coronavirus aid (E&E News):
  
  [S]everal Senate Democrats yesterday demanded that any assistance for the airline and cruise ship industries come with strings attached, including requirements to reduce carbon emissions. "Given the poor environmental records of some companies in these industries, we believe that any such financial assistance should be paired with requirements that companies act in a more responsible fashion," they wrote in a letter to House and Senate leadership.
• Democratic lawmakers call for emissions reductions in airline bailout (The Hill)
• Whitehouse, Senate Democrats Request Requirements for Airlines and Cruise Lines to Address Pollution in Financial Assistance Package (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse)
• Airline industry seeking more than $50 billion in government aid amid coronavirus crisis (Washington Post)
• Cruise Line Tax Exemption Under Fire As Trump Floats Bailout (Law 360)
• Exxon Mobil to cut spending due to coronavirus volatility
• VIDEO: Why US oil industry should shut down now: Expert (CNBC)
• Exxon pledges 'significant' spending cuts amid coronavirus, oil slide (Reuters)
• Exxon Mobil Plans Capital Cuts. Will the Dividend Remain? (Barrons)
• ExxonMobil planning to reduce spending amid volatile COVID-19 market conditions (WBRZ-Baton Rouge)
• Oil prices stage rebound after days of relentless selling (Market Watch)
• North Dakota weighs plan to keep some Bakken crude off market (S&PGlobal Platts)
• Oil price collapse has ominous implications for oil-producing nations:
• Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director and OPEC Secretary General discussed the current situation in global oil markets (International Energy Agency):
  
  "This is likely to have major social and economic consequences, notably for public sector spending in vital areas such as health care and education."
• The fallout from oil's collapse (Axios):
  
  Goldman Sachs analysts now estimate that global oil consumption has fallen by 8 million barrels a day, and they see Brent crude falling to $20 a barrel next quarter.
• Oil Nations Could See Income Crash By Up To 85 Percent In 2020 (Oil Price):
  
  “Recent history shows that playing Russian roulette with the US shale industry through an oil ‘price war’ can backfire. The major victims are likely to be people in developing countries that still rely heavily on oil & gas revenues to fund their social & economic systems.”
• The Real Oil Demand Shock Is Yet To Come (Oil Price)
• The Destabilizing Effect of Cheap Oil (The Globalist, 6/17/2017)
• Melting ice caps on track for worst-case scenario sea level rise:
• Greenland, Antarctica Melting Six Times Faster Than in the 1990s (NASA):
  
  Observations from 11 satellite missions monitoring the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have revealed that the regions are losing ice six times faster than they were in the 1990s. If the current melting trend continues, the regions will be on track to match the "worst-case" scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of an extra 6.7 inches (17 centimeters) of sea level rise by 2100.
• Polar ice caps melting six times faster than in 1990s (Guardian UK):
  
  Without rapid cuts to carbon emissions the analysis indicates there could be a rise in sea levels that would leave 400 million people exposed to coastal flooding each year by the end of the century.

'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

• Tackling the Growing Threat of Water Conflict (Deutsche Welle)
• Coronavirus shows us America is broken (NY Magazine)
• Oil and gas companies want to drill within a half-mile of Utah’s best-known national parks (Washington Post)
• 'A test of governments.' Oil industry faces worst glut ever (E&E News)
• 4 astonishing signs of coal’s declining economic viability (Vox)
• Coronavirus Creating Solar Industry 'Crisis': U.S. Trade Group (Reuters)
• Q&A: A Harvard Expert on Environment and Health Discusses Possible Ties Between COVID and Climate (Inside Climate News)
• Study: global banks 'failing miserably' on climate crisis by funneling trillions into fossil fuels (Guardian UK)
• Oklo submits first advanced reactor license application in US as NRC moves to streamline reviews (Utiilty Dive)
• Majors look to store jet fuel at sea as air travel drastically curbed (Reuters)
• Coronavirus slows developing nations’ plans to step up climate action in 2020 (Climate Change News)
• Courts Slow Trump’s Agenda To Open Public Lands To Oil And Gas Drilling (LA Times)
• The Global Victory Over Ozone-Killing Chemicals Is Coming Undone (Bloomberg)
• Medical waste companies preparing for potentially elevated volumes as coronavirus concerns accelerate (Waste Dive)
• 'An immediate and dramatic business concern': How COVID-19 is disrupting the energy sector (Utility Dive)
• The U.S. Nuclear Deterrent Is Not Prepared For Climate Catastrophe (Forbes)
• Military Sees Surge In Sites With 'Forever Chemical' Contamination (The Hill)
• Chem Plant Cites Study It Funded to Ask Regulators to OK Higher Emissions (NOLA)
• The Park Service Is Selling Out To Telecom Giants (High Country News)
• Russia Makes Move On Antarctica's 513 Billion Barrels Of Oil (Oil Price)
• 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, Democrats, Sheldon Whitehouse, Green News, Oil, Climate change, NASA, Exxon Mobil, Transportation, Africa, Antarctica, Carbon Tax, Pollution, Coronavirus/COVID-19