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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.S. Senate confirms historic nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland as Interior Secretary; Jackson, MS still without clean drinking water one month after winter storm; US dams and levees get D grades from American engineers; Democrats turn to crafting massive infrastructure bill, with focus on climate resilience; PLUS: February 2021 was the 16th warmest February globally... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): New E.P.A. Head Says Agency Has Climate Regulations Underway; Congress Launches Probe Into Multibillion-Dollar 'Clean Coal' Tax Credit; Cold War Ice Core Reveals Greenland Was Recently Ice-Free; Countries Tried to Curb Trade in Plastic Waste. The US Is Shipping More; Western States Chart Diverging Paths As Water Shortages Loom; Tiny Town, Big Decision: What Are We Willing to Pay to Fight Rising Sea?; Auto industry urges emissions deal weaker than Obama’s; 8-month PFAS disclosure gap draws backlash for MI officials... PLUS: Capitol mob may have trashed 3 Trump pollution rules... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Senate confirms Rep. Deb Haaland's historic nomination as Interior Secretary:
• "Madam Secretary" (Indian Country Today):
  
  A fierce Indigenous woman is now the caretaker of the nation's public lands and waters for the first time in U.S. history.
• Deb Haaland Makes History As First Native American Cabinet Secretary (Huffington Post)
• 'Monumental day': Indian Country reacts to Deb Haaland vote (AP)
• What Deb Haaland's historic confirmation means to Native Americans (CBS News)
• Republicans used oil industry-backed study to criticize Deb Haaland (Guardian UK)
• February 2021 was 16th warmest February globally:
• February 2021 was the 16th-warmest February on record, NOAA reports (Yale Climate Communications):
  
  Even as Texas and much of the central U.S. froze, many other regions of the world were warmer than average last month.
• Global Climate Report - February 2021 (NOAA)
• America's Coldest February in 32 Years Couldn't Offset an Overall Warm Winter (Weather Channel)
• Jackson, MS residents still without clean water, one month after extreme storm:
• 'You Can't Bathe. You Can't Wash.' Water Crisis Hobbles Jackson, Miss., for Weeks (NY Times):
  
  Nearly one month after a winter storm froze pipes and water mains, more than 70 percent of the city's water customers remained under a notice to boil water.
• Water crisis Day 27: Water still unsafe to drink in Jackson nearly a month later (Mississippi Clarion-Ledger)
• VIDEO: A month without water: In Jackson, Mississippi, struggling residents fear next outage (NBC News)
• Water restored, but most of Jackson still under boil notice (AP)
• US engineers give US infrastructure a C- grade - with Ds for dams and bridges:
• New report: U.S. dams, levees get D grades, need $115 billion in upgrades (Yale Climate Communications):
  
  The group's 2021 report card gave the nation's 91,000-plus dams a D grade, just as they had received in each of its assessments since the first one was issued in 1998...The cost to rehabilitate deficient high-hazard-potential dams, whose failure would result in loss of life, is estimated at nearly $20 billion. Over 2,300 dams in the U.S. are in this category...Increased precipitation in the U.S. in recent decades, partially the result of climate change, has caused an additional $2.5 billion a year in U.S. flood damages.
• US infrastructure gets C- from engineers as roads stagnate (AP):
  
  "This report card is a warning and a call to action," [Transportation Sec. Pete] Buttigieg told The Associated Press. "A generation of disinvestment is catching up to us, and we must choose whether to allow our global competitors to pull ahead permanently, or to invest in the safety, equity, resilience and economic strength that superior infrastructure can bring to Americans."
• Biden, Democrats begin crafting massive infrastructure bill:
• Pelosi on infrastructure: 'Hopefully we will have bipartisanship' (Politico)
• Environmental Justice Plays Key Role in Biden Covid-19 Stimulus Package (Inside Climate News)
• The Muddled Infrastructure Push; Plus: Why is there no urgency on the Congressional Review Act? (The American Prospect)
• First 100: The American Rescue Plan's Significant Public Investments (The American Prospect)
• Tlaib, Dingell press Biden for water shutoff ban in infrastructure package (Detroit News)
• Wall Street is already eyeing Biden's next trillion-dollar spending plan (CNN)
• Biden Admin. rescinds permit for controversial Oak Flat, AZ copper mine:
• Feds withdraw environmental impact statement, delaying Oak Flat land swap (Arizona Republic)
• Bikers, bands and barristers: Oak Flat copper mine plan draws a wide range of opponents (Arizona Republic):
  
  The copper, which lies 7,000 feet below ground level, would be mined using a method known as block cave mining, or panel caving, which would leave a giant sinkhole where Oak Flat now stands.
• House Bill Introduced to Save Sacred Oak Flat, in Arizona, From Massive Copper Mine (Center for Biological Diversity)
• VIDEO: Resolution Copper Mining Method (Youtube)

'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

• New E.P.A. Head Says Agency Has Climate Regulations Underway (NY Times)
• Congress Launches Probe Into Multibillion-Dollar 'Clean Coal' Tax Credit (Reuters)
• SEC To Weigh Requiring Further Climate Disclosures To Investors (The Hill)
• Cold War Ice Core Reveals Greenland Was Recently Ice-Free (Washington Post)
• Countries Tried to Curb Trade in Plastic Waste. The US Is Shipping More (NY Times)
• Western States Chart Diverging Paths As Water Shortages Loom (AP)
• Tiny Town, Big Decision: What Are We Willing to Pay to Fight Rising Sea? (NY Times)
• Chinese-flagged vessel runs aground off Mauritius (Reuters)
• Maryland Senate Passes Climate Act By Wide Margin (Bay Journal)
• Redlined, Now Flooding: Maps of historic housing discrimination show how neighborhoods that suffered redlining in the 1930s face a far higher risk of flooding today (Bloomberg)
• Auto industry urges emissions deal weaker than Obama’s (AP)
• 8-month PFAS disclosure gap draws backlash for Michigan officials (MLive)
• Capitol mob may have trashed 3 Trump pollution rules (E&E News)
• Siberia's warming shows climate change has no winners (Nikkei Asia)
• How climate change could undo 50 years of public health gains (Grist)
• 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: Environment, Democrats, Green News, Climate change, Extreme weather, Water, Mining, Native Americans, Dept. of Interior, Public lands, NOAA, Infrastructure, Deb Haaland