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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Texas town's water system shut down due to deadly, brain-eating amoeba; Trump Administration opens up nation's largest protected forest to logging; Pebble Mine CEO resigns after boasting about obedient Alaskan politicians; PLUS: Trump's nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not an advocate of the environment or public health... 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): Oceans Appear to Be Stabilizing. Here's Why it's Very Bad News; Ocean Heat Waves Are Directly Linked to Climate Change; White House recruited climate deniers for NOAA; Montana judge ousts Trump’s temporary Bureau of Land Management director; Exxon Touts Carbon Capture as a Climate Fix, but Uses It to Maximize Profit and Keep Oil Flowing; It’s Official — Consumer Reports Confirms EV Owners Spend Half As Much On Maintenance... PLUS: What to Pack in Your Emergency Bag — With COVID-19 in Mind... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Texas: Deadly brain-eating amoeba found in town's water supply:
• Texas city where boy, 6, died of brain-eating amoeba to purge water system for 60 days (NBC News)
• VIDEO: Texas governor issues disaster declaration over brain-eating amoeba found in Lake Jackson water supply (CBS News)
• A brain-eating amoeba claims the life of a 6-year-old boy in Texas (CNN)
• Brain-eating amoeba in city’s water supply kills 6-year-old, leads Texas to declare a disaster (Washington Post):
  
  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration in Brazoria County on Sunday after the discovery in the local water supply system of an amoeba that can cause a rare and deadly infection of the brain.
• New round of California wildfires destroys parts of Wine Country, again:
• 3 Killed in Fresh Wildfires in Northern California (NY Times):
  
  In addition to the deaths, the famous Chateau Boswell winery is gone, a community of tiny homes for homeless people has burned, and an untold number of houses are feared lost.
• Wine Country Fires Burn Homes, Force Evacuations From Santa Rosa To Napa (SF Chronicle)
• Mass evacuations as wildfire erupts in California wine country (CBS News):
  
  At least three fires have now merged, forming the one massive inferno. The first blaze sparked early Sunday morning and was 0% contained as of early Monday, according to Cal Fire.
• Bay Area wildfires: Cooler, less windy weather may help fight against Glass Fire (San Jose Mercury News)
• Wildfire deaths from air pollution likely much higher than official death toll:
• ‘These are hidden deaths.’ Over 1,000 likely died early due to California’s wildfire smoke (Sacramento Bee):
  
  But “the total cost in terms of human lives and health is likely far larger due to the immense amount of smoke that has been inhaled over the last 3 weeks by the very large number of people living on the West Coast,” said researchers at Stanford’s Center on Food Security and the Environment.
• Indirect mortality from recent wildfires in CA (G-Feed)
• Smoke from California wildfires may have killed up to 3,000 people, study says (The Hill)
• Alaska: Pebble Mine CEO resigns after secret tape revelations:
• Alaska mining executive resigns a day after being caught on tape boasting of his ties to GOP politicians (Washington Post)
• VIDEO: In secret tapes, mine executives detail their sway over leaders from Juneau to the White House (Washington Post):
  
  A direct line to the White House, but routed through a third party to hide it from public view. Easy access to Alaska’s governor, as well as the state’s two U.S. senators. A successful push to unseat nine Republican state lawmakers who opposed their plan to build a massive gold and copper mine — the biggest in North America — near Bristol Bay in Alaska.
• VIDEO: Pebble Mine Tape Reveal Plans to Build Massive 180-Year Mine at the Headwaters of Bristol Bay in Alaska (Environmental Investigation Agency)
• Hear the secret tapes that expose a mining company's true plans (CNN)
• An Alaska Mine Project Might Be Bigger Than Acknowledged (NY Times):
  
  In secretly recorded meetings, executives with the Pebble Mine project said the operation could run nine times longer than outlined in their permit filings.
• Sen. Sullivan says ‘No Pebble mine' following release of secretly recorded videos of company executives and criticism by Gross (Anchorage Daily News)
• Pebble Mine: “Tapes? What Tapes??” (NRDC)
• Trump Admin. lifts 'roadless rule' protections from Tongass National Forest:
• The Trump Administration Moves to Open Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to Logging (Inside Climate News):
  
  The vast wilderness area is a prime hunting and fishing ground. Indigenous groups say removing Roadless Rule protections would harm them—and the environment.
• VIDEO: Trump moves to open Tongass National Forest for logging, to environmentalists’ dismay (PBS NewsHour)
• The Forest Service Announced it Will Axe Roadless Rule Protections in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest (Outdoor Life Magazine):
  
  In the Tongass, the heavily subsidized logging industry collapsed due to lack of profitability before 2001. But by then, a significant portion, some sources estimate around half, of the Tongass' productive old-growth forest had been clear-cut. The Rule protects about 9 million acres in the Tongass, including the the majority of the region’s remaining productive old growth which amounts to a small percent of the total acreage safeguarded.
• Trump nominates rightwing anti-environment Judge Amy Coney Barrett to US Supreme Court:
• AUDIO: 'End of the Supreme Court as We Know It'; Plus: A Major, Statewide Vote System Failure in Georgia, with Mark Joseph Stern (The BRAD BLOG)
• How Amy Coney Barrett Could Alter the Future of the U.S.'s Climate Change Policy (Time Magazine)
• Barrett as Justice Gives Climate Cases Tougher Path to Court (Bloomberg Law):
  
  President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court could make it tougher for environmentalists to wage future legal fights. Barrett has applied a narrow view of standing, the legal bar for bringing a case, in her rulings as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
• How a More Conservative Supreme Court Could Impact Environmental Laws (E&E News):
  
  The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett may make the court more skeptical of broad readings of agencies’ regulatory powers.
• The Energy 202: How Amy Coney Barrett may make it harder for environmentalists to win in court (Washington Post):
  
  There are signs Barrett could help cement the Trump administration's environmental rollbacks for decades...With Ginsburg’s death, the court’s three-member liberal bloc would need the support of at least one conservative to add a case to the Supreme Court’s docket.
• Could Barrett 'shut the courthouse doors' on enviros? (E&E News)
• Ginsburg's death could reawaken Mass. v EPA (E&E News)

'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

• The Oceans Appear to Be Stabilizing. Here's Why it's Very Bad News (Dr. Michael Mann, Newsweek)
• White House recruited climate critics for NOAA (E&E News)
• Montana judge ousts Trump’s temporary Bureau of Land Management director, casting doubt on range of decisions (Washington Post)
• Post-court order: New title for Pendley, questions for BLM (E&E News)
• What to Pack in Your Emergency Bag — With COVID-19 in Mind (KQED)
• Exxon Touts Carbon Capture as a Climate Fix, but Uses It to Maximize Profit and Keep Oil Flowing (Inside Climate News)
• How the oil industry made us doubt climate change (BBC)
• Vote as if the Climate and the Future of Humanity Depend on It—Because They Do (EcoWatch)
• It’s Official — Consumer Reports Confirms EV Owners Spend Half As Much On Maintenance (Clean Technica)
• Ocean Heat Waves Are Directly Linked to Climate Change (NY Times)
• There Are No Excuses Left for Leaving Climate Change Out of the Debates (Wired)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• 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: California, Texas, Alaska, Environment, U.S. Supreme Court, Green News, Donald Trump, Climate change, Extreme weather, Water, Mining, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Public lands, Election 2020, Pebble Mine, Amy Coney Barrett