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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Powerful Cyclone Amphan headed for one of the world's poorest regions amid a pandemic; Man-made climate change leading to more intense hurricanes; Trump E.P.A. refuses to limit toxic rocket-fuel chemical in your drinking water; PLUS: What the Covid crisis should teach us about the climate crisis... 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): EPA Settlements: Will Coronavirus get polluters off the hook?; Companies worth $2 trillion are calling for a Green Recovery;
When will renewables pass coal? Sooner than anyone thought; 'Stealth' bailout shovels millions of dollars to oil and gas companies; American Climate Video: In Case of Wildfire, Save Things of Sentimental Value... PLUS: Thinking of buying a bike? Get ready for a very long wait... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Powerful Cyclone Amphan bears down on Bangladesh and India amid pandemic:
• Cyclone Amphan poses extreme storm surge danger for eastern India, Bangladesh (Washington Post):
  
  The shape of the Bay of Bengal maximizes storm surge at its northern end, since the region becomes narrower as storms spin farther to the north, creating a funnel effect for the movement of water. Past storms that have struck this densely populated region have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced thousands more.
• Amphan to Push Massive Storm Surge Toward Eastern India and Bangladesh (Weather Underground)
• VIDEO: Tropical Cyclone Amphan to Strike India and Bangladesh With Major Storm Surge, Damaging Winds and Flooding Rainfall (Weather Channel)
• VIDEO: India and Bangladesh are already suffering with coronavirus. Now a super cyclone is heading their way (CNN)
• VIDEO: India and Bangladesh brace for the strongest storm ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal (CNN)
• Early arrival: Tropical Storm Arthur in Atlantic ignores 'official start' to hurricane season:
• Tropical Storm Arthur spins out to sea, will drench Bermuda (AP)
• For the sixth year in a row, an Atlantic named storm forms early (Ars Technica):
  
  [T]his is now the sixth year in a row that a named storm has developed prior to the June 1 date. And according to data compiled by University of Miami hurricane scientist Brian McNoldy, the average date of the first named storm is steadily moving earlier. In 1970, it typically came in early July, but now the average date of the first storm is about one month earlier.
• >Tropical Storm Arthur now a post-tropical cyclone; will still send big waves to Florida (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
• Tropical Storm Arthur Brushed N.C. Outer Banks; Sixth Straight Year a Named Storm Formed Before Hurricane Season (Weather Channel)
• Climate change is leading to stronger hurricanes:
• Global increase in major tropical cyclone exceedance probability over the past four decades (PNAS)
• The strongest, most dangerous hurricanes are now far more likely because of climate change, study shows (Washington Post):
  
  The study finds a global increase of about 8 percent per decade of the likelihood that a given tropical cyclone will become a Category 3 or greater storm. With powerful hurricanes on the increase, one can expect damage costs, in dollar terms and in potential loss of life, to skyrocket.
• Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are becoming stronger, according to a new NOAA study (CNN):
  
  "The change is about 8% per decade," Jim Kossin, author of the study, told CNN. "In other words, during its lifetime, a hurricane is 8% more likely to be a major hurricane in this decade compared to the last decade."
• Imagine Hurricane Katrina during a pandemic. The US needs to prepare for that - now. (Vox)
• Trump EPA declines to regulate toxic chemical perchlorate in groundwater:
• Nothing Will Jump-Start the Economy Like Rocket Fuel in the Drinking Water (Esquire)
• E.P.A. Opts Against Limits on Water Contaminant Perchlorate Tied to Fetal Damage (NY Times):
  
  The decision by Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the E.P.A., appears to defy a court order that required the agency to establish a safe drinking-water standard for the chemical by the end of June. The policy, which acknowledges that exposure to high levels of perchlorate can cause I.Q. damage but opts nevertheless not to limit it, could also set a precedent for the regulation of other chemicals, people familiar with the matter said...The new policy will revoke the 2011 E.P.A. finding that perchlorate presents serious health risks...
• EPA decides against limits on drinking water pollutant linked to health risks, especially in children (Washington Post)
• EPA Refuses to Protect Children from Perchlorate-Contaminated Tap Water (NRDC):
  
  The agency defies a court order, the law, and science.
• Biden 2020 campaign's moves on climate seek to bridge Democats' divide:
• Biden Names Ocasio-Cortez, Kerry to Lead His Climate Task Force, Bridging Democrats' Divide (Inside Climate News)
• Biden says he'd cancel Keystone XL pipeline permit if elected (CBC)
• Ocasio-Cortez To Co-Chair Biden-Sanders Campaign Climate Task Force (CNN)
• How the climate movement is trying to fix Joe Biden (The Verge)
• '60 Minutes' asks how the Covid crisis will/won't change society:
• VIDEO: What will be the new normals after the coronavirus pandemic? (CBS):
  
  History shows the aftermath of plagues have brought about radical transformations for societies. So what changes could come in the aftermath of COVID-19?...
  McKibben: Well, what choice does one have, really, in a-- in a crisis but to try and-- and make something useful of it? I mean, the dumbest thing to do would just be to set up all the pins in the bowling alley one more time exactly the same way.

'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

• EPA Settlements: Will Coronavirus Get Polluters Off The Hook? (Grist)
• Companies Worth $2 Trillion Are Calling for a Green Recovery (Bloomberg)
• When Will Renewables Pass Coal? Sooner Than Anyone Thought (Inside Climate News)
• Thinking of Buying a Bike? Get Ready for a Very Long Wait (NY Times)
• ‘Stealth Bailout’ Shovels Millions of Dollars to Oil Companies (Bloomberg)
• Climate Change Is Looming. But America Has Lost 600,000 Clean Energy Jobs (LA Times)
• MD, VA, DC Plan To Sue EPA For Failing To Enforce Chesapeake Cleanup (Washington Post)
• American Climate Video: In Case of Wildfire, Save Things of Sentimental Value (Inside Climate News)
• EPA Emails: Trump Officials, Chemical Group Talked Before 2017 Settlement (The Hill)
• 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: John Kerry, Environment, Democrats, CBS, Green News, EPA, Donald Trump, Oil, Climate change, Extreme weather, Keystone XL, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, Water, India, Election 2020, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pollution, Coronavirus/COVID-19