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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: NOAA warns hurricane season could be a doozy --- especially during a pandemic; Plague of locusts expands into India; New York and New Jersey reject controversial fracked-gas pipeline; PLUS: New ad campaign links Trump's coronavirus denial to climate change denial... 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): Michigan dam failure shows the Midwest's growing vulnerability to climate change; Will Floating Turbines Usher in a New Wave of Offshore Wind?; How fast will you need to flee from the heat?; As Fishermen Flounder, Trump Clears A Path For Farming The Oceans; Record Drop In Energy Investment, Warns International Energy Agency; Trail of spills haunts Dakota Access pipeline developer... PLUS: How a Contrarian Scientist Helped Trump's EPA Defy Mainstream Science... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Sudden Tropical Storm Bertha makes landfall and weather history:
• That Was Fast: Tropical Storm Bertha Develops and Makes Landfall Over South Carolina (Weather Underground):
  
  In less time than it takes to watch a movie, a disturbance labeled Invest 91L intensified into Tropical Storm Bertha and then moved onto the South Carolina coast, becoming the Atlantic's first landfalling tropical cyclone of 2020 with startling speed...The time span of just one hour between Bertha's designation by NHC as a tropical cyclone and its landfall is one of the shortest on record.
• Bertha weakens to tropical depression, bringing heavy rain to South Carolina (CNN):
  
  The storm made landfall less than two hours after the National Hurricane Center named it Bertha...Since 1900 having two named storms before the official start of hurricane season --- June 1 --- has only happened five times, said Phil Klotzbach research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Three of those have been since 2012, including this year.
• Two Tropical Storms Form Before June 1 - Does That Mean an Active Hurricane Season Is Guaranteed? (Weather Channel)
• Biggest plague of desert locusts in 30 years expands into India:
• Swarms of desert locusts threaten India's summer crops (AP):
  
  India has not seen locust swarms on this scale since 1993 and the numbers of the fast-breeding insects could grow immensely before drier weather curbs their spread...higher than normal temperatures this year have helped locusts spread more rapidly and if not controlled, they can badly hurt India's food supplies.
• Coronavirus-battered India is now battling a plague of locusts (CBS News):
  
  India is scrambling drones, sending teams to spray insecticide and issuing alerts as swarms of locusts descend on its western states. The drones are helping track the voracious insects as they destroy crops, increasing fears over food security and economic malaise in a country already battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
• India combats locust attack amid Covid-19 pandemic (BBC):
  
  "The situation is much more serious this year not only in Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan but in all the frontline countries in Africa, and the Arabian peninsula".
• Climate Change Brings the Worst Locust Attack in Decades to India (The Wire)
• In a first, drone used to clear locust swarms in Chomu (Times of India)
• A plague of locusts has descended on East Africa. Climate change may be to blame. (National Geographic)
• NOAA forecasts 2020 Atlantic hurricane season will be 'unusually active':
• 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season Expected to Be More Active Than Usual, NOAA Says (The Weather Channel)
• NOAA predicts Atlantic hurricane season will be unusually active (Washington Post):
  
  The higher-end storms, of Category 3 and greater, are responsible for the most damage, and climate change research, including a study published on Monday, has found an increased likelihood of major tropical cyclones as the world warms. Each of the past four Atlantic hurricane seasons has featured at least one Category 5 storm.
• VIDEO: NOAA hurricane forecast warns of a very active season ahead, with meteorologist Jeff Berardelli (CBS News)
• The dual risks of natural disasters and COVID-19 (Phys.Org)
• With Summer Heat Waves, Hurricanes, and Flooding on the Horizon, Disaster Responders Grapple with Planning for Extreme Weather in the Time of COVID-19 (National Academies of Sciences):
  
  Any weather anomaly that happens during the COVID-19 outbreak will create a compound extreme event, explained panelist Jane W. Baldwin, a Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory postdoctoral fellow. A compound extreme event occurs when one disaster is layered on another, requiring special preparation. In other words, Baldwin says, it is "a series of events that are worse than the sum of their parts."
• League of Conservation Voters' ads link COVID-19 denial to climate denial:
• VIDEO: LCV Victory Fund Launches Arizona Ad Campaign Revealing Trump's Anti-Environment Record to 'Environmental Swing Voters' (League of Conservation Voters)
• LCV Responds to Trump Exploiting Pandemic to Roll Back Even More Environmental Protections (League of Conservation Voters)
• Environmental group bets $14 million on moving swing voters against Trump (NBC News)
• Decades of Science Denial Related to Climate Change Has Led to Denial of the Coronavirus Pandemic (Inside Climate News)
• The Analogy Between Covid-19 and Climate Change Is Eerily Precise (Wired)
• Ohio approves nation's first freshwater offshore wind farm, with restrictions:
• Ohio approves nation's 1st freshwater offshore wind project (E&E News):
  
  The ruling by Ohio's Power Siting Board came a decade after plans for the project began to take shape and is contingent on a series of nearly three dozen conditions to be satisfied before, during and after construction. Included is a requirement that the project go silent for months of the year to protect birds and bats...Environmental groups like the Sierra Club that championed the project, however, agreed with developers that the board went too far with restrictions on when the wind farm can operate. Requirements to "feather" turbines, or stop them from spinning for much of the year, are "extreme and seriously undermine the ability for the project to raise capital to begin turbine construction," said Miranda Leppla, vice president of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council.
• LEEDCo: Nighttime Turbine Restrictions May Be Fatal for Icebreaker (Offshore Wind)
• Editorial: Another misguided vote to keep Ohio’s energy dirty (Columbus Dispatch):
  
  Even though official Ohio’s determination to do the bidding of coal and gas interests is nothing new, LEEDCo and its supporters are justified in declaring themselves “stunned” by the siting board’s Thursday decision, because it disregards an agreement hammered out and signed a full year ago...Renewable energy advocates say those “deviations” — last-minute reversals and unprecedently critical scrutiny of all clean-energy proposals — can be traced to Gov. Mike DeWine’s appointment of Sam Randazzo, a longtime representative of the traditional energy industry and vocal critic of renewables, as head of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and thus the power siting board.
• New York and New Jersey reject controversial proposed pipeline:
• New York’s Use of Landmark Climate Law Could Resound in Other States (Inside Cliamte News):
  
  Experts say they think a decision by regulators marks the first time that a law setting emissions targets has been used to block a natural gas pipeline.
• N.Y. rejects $1B pipeline over climate, water concerns (E&E News)
• New York to Williams Pipeline: Bye forever (Grist)
• New Jersey DEP denies permits sought for NESE pipeline project; Williams Company has no plans to refile (Central Jersey)

'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

• Michigan dam failure shows the Midwest's growing vulnerability to climate change (Washington Post)
• How a Contrarian Scientist Helped Trump's EPA Defy Mainstream Science (Inside Climate News)
• Will Floating Turbines Usher in a New Wave of Offshore Wind? (Yale e360)
• How fast will you need to flee from the heat? There’s a word for that. (Grist)
• COP26: UK proposes new date for delayed climate change summit (BBC)
• Univ. of California becomes nation’s largest university to divest fully from fossil fuels (LA Times)
• Judge strikes down US energy leasing rules in bird habitat (AP)
• As Fishermen Flounder, Trump Clears A Path For Farming The Oceans (Huffington Post)
• States, Cities and Green Groups Sue to Stop Trump Fuel Efficiency Rollback (EcoWatch)
• Big Oil Loses Appeal, Climate Suits Go To California Courts (AP)
• Environmentalists Lose Bid To Halt Uranium Mine In Arizona (AP)
• Record Drop In Energy Investment, Warns International Energy Agency (BBC)
• Trail of spills haunts Dakota Access pipeline developer (E&E News)
• 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: Ohio, California, New Jersey, New York, Environment, Green News, Fracking, Donald Trump, Natural gas, Oil, Wind energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Agriculture, Oceans/Sea Level Rise, India, Coronavirus/COVID-19