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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 'Unsurvivable' heat, projected for decades into the future, is already occurring now; Despite crashing oil demand, Trump Administration speeding up drilling expansion on public lands; Air pollution increasing again as coronavirus restrictions lift; PLUS: New study finds natural gas stoves are a major source of indoor air pollution... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Renewables can preserve the economy, drive the recovery; Tesla's secret batteries aim to rework the math for electric cars and the grid; FERC order could bar offshore wind from U.S. power market; Covid-19 crisis will wipe out demand for fossil fuels, says IEA ; Trump's grid security executive order will create vendor 'black list'; US fossil fuel giants set for a coronavirus bailout bonanza; Ocasio-Cortez to co-chair Biden-Sanders campaign Climate Task Force... PLUS: America’s meat shortage is more serious than your missing hamburgers... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• 'Unsurvivable heat from climate change is already here:
• The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (Science)
• Humidity and heat extremes are on the verge of exceeding limits of human survivability, study finds (Washington Post):
  
  Welcome to “Steambath Earth,” featuring sauna-like temperatures and humidity too high for humans to tolerate. Extremely humid heat that is more intense than most Americans have experienced — approaching a crucial, immovable human survivability limit — has more than doubled in frequency in some coastal subtropical regions of the world since 1979, according to a study published Friday.
• VIDEO: Unsurvivable Heat Was Predicted to Blast Earth in the Future. Instead, It's Happening Now. (Weather Channel)
• Deadly Heat and Humidity Emerging Decades Ahead of Forecasts (Haaretz)
• What is Wet Bulb temperature? (Univ. of New South Wales)
• Trump BLM rushing ahead with new oil leases in New Mexico:
• As Oil Prices Crash, BLM Wants to Open Up Public Lands in New Mexico for More Extraction (Union of Concerned Scientists):
  
  BLM recently announced a plan to proceed with oil and gas extraction in northern New Mexico, including in an area near Chaco Canyon National Historical Park that they had previously reversed course on...The timing of this choice also seems exceptional given that oil and gas prices recently hit rock-bottom, prompting many to ask why BLM is in such a hurry to give away our resources so cheaply?
• Trump moves ahead with selling public land to fossil-fuel industry amid coronavirus and oil price freefall (Indedependent UK)
• Trump administration to hold 'virtual meetings' on oil drilling - but tribes affected have limited internet (Independent UK)
• Udall, tribes denounce virtual meetings for Chaco drilling plan (Santa Fe New Mexican)
• Rep. Deb Haaland: BLM silences voices during pandemic (Albuquerque Journal)
• Exxon reports historic loss, closes 75% of Permian rigs (E&E News)
• Tribes urge US to ban drilling around sacred New Mexico site (AP, 3/21/2019)
• Study: Natural gas stoves are a major source of indoor air pollution
• Gas stoves can generate unsafe levels of indoor air pollution (David Roberts, Vox):
  
  “In homes without gas stoves, average CO levels are between 0.5 and 5 ppm,” the report says. “Homes with gas stoves that are properly adjusted are often between 5 and 15 ppm, whereas levels near poorly adjusted stoves can be twice as high: 30 ppm or higher.” Poorly adjusted stoves — incompletely burning fuel, inadequately ventilated — may yield ongoing, low-level CO exposure, putting the vulnerable at greater risk.
• Study: Gas-powered appliances may be hazardous for your health (Grist):
  
  To decrease indoor air pollution, the study proposes that households transition to zero-emission electric appliances. If all residential gas appliances in California were immediately replaced with clean energy alternatives, the resulting decrease in pollution would result in approximately 350 fewer deaths, 600 fewer cases of acute bronchitis, and 300 fewer cases of chronic bronchitis annually.
• Gas stoves making indoor air up to five times dirtier than outdoor air, report finds (Guardian UK)
• Effects of Residential Gas Appliances on Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality and Public Health in California (UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Dept. of Environmental Sciences)
• Gas Stoves: Health and Air Quality Impacts and Solutions (Rocky Mountain Institute)
• Clear skies due to coronavirus shutdowns saved lives:
• COVID-19 lockdowns significantly impacting global air quality (Science Daily)
• Wuhan’s lockdown cut air pollution by up to 63% – new research (The Conversation):
  
  The COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan, China, resulted in a 63% reduction in nitrogen dioxide concentrations, according to our new research...The potential deaths prevented may even outweigh the official Chinese death toll from COVID-19 itself which stands at 4,633.
• 11,000 air pollution-related deaths avoided in Europe as coal, oil consumption plummet (Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air)
• 11,000 deaths avoided during lockdown in Europe – thanks to cleaner air (World Economic Forum)
• India's cleaner lockdown air could save 650,000 lives (Telegraph UK)
• India's carbon emissions fall for first time in four decades (BBC)
• Pollution returns to Houston as coronavirus restrictions loosen (Houston Chronicle)
• Air pollution levels will bounce back as COVID-19 restrictions loosen, scientists say (Space)
• Good news for breathers: more utility companies switching from coal to renewables:
• Great River Energy to exit coal, close 1.15 GW plant, but North Dakota governor vows rescue (Utility Dive):
  
  Minnesota's Great River Energy on Thursday announced a plan to significantly reduce its carbon footprint by replacing a North Dakota coal plant with renewable energy projects, market purchases and grid-scale battery technology. The plan calls for retiring the 1,151 MW Coal Creek Station in the second half of 2022, and the addition of 1,100 MW of wind energy purchases by the end of 2023. Republicans in North Dakota vowed to keep the coal plant open.
• Sweden becomes the third European country to close its last coal power plant (Electrek)
• Climate crisis: Sweden closes last coal-fired power station two years ahead of schedule (Indpendent UK)
• Demise of coal-burning power means toxic ash landfills forever on Great Lakes State shores (MLive)
• Plain Talk: State's Attorney says if Great River closes their coal power plant, they should take down their transmission line too (Grand Forks Herald):
  
  That line serving Coal Creek is extremely valuable. It delivers to the Minnesota market and, if the coal plant is shut down, could be used to transport power generated by wind turbines, but [State's Attorney for McLean County Ladd] Erickson doesn't believe Great River should get to do that.

'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

• Renewables Can Preserve the Economy, Drive the Recovery (Climate Crocks)
• America’s meat shortage is more serious than your missing hamburgers: The meat supply chain is breaking down, but that’s only part of the story. (Vox/Recode)
• Rockefeller heirs to Big Oil find dumping fossil fuels improved bottom line (Washington Post)
• Ocasio-Cortez To Co-Chair Biden-Sanders Campaign Climate Task Force (CNN)
• Exclusive: Tesla's secret batteries aim to rework the math for electric cars and the grid (Reuters)
• FERC order could bar offshore wind from U.S. power market (E&E News)
• Covid-19 crisis will wipe out demand for fossil fuels, says IEA (Guardian UK)
• Cities are transforming as electric bike sales skyrocket (The Verge)
• Goldman Sachs says the only other commodity ‘looking as precarious as oil’ is livestock (CNBC)
• Climate change: Study pours cold water on oil company net zero claims (BBC)
• GM EV chief: There are no delays of our EVs due to the pandemic (Electrek)
• Trump's grid security executive order will create vendor 'black list,' complicate equipment sourcing (Utility Dive)
• Coronavirus Could Disrupt Weather Forecasting (NY Times)
• US fossil fuel giants set for a coronavirus bailout bonanza (Guardian UK)
• California Startup Opus 12 Recycles Carbon Dioxide (EcoWatch)
• Tunnel Vision: Lessons in the Impermanence of Permafrost (Undark)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• 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: Texas, New Mexico, Environment, Green News, Fracking, Donald Trump, Coal, Oil, Wind energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, China, European Union, Dept. of Interior, Public lands, Pollution, Coronavirus/COVID-19