Follow @GreenNewsReport...

(Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.)

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: G7 summit meeting ends with pledges for climate action but few concrete details; Early season extreme heat wave breaks records, spikes wildfires in the West; Disturbing mystery at Chinese nuclear plant; Like the Keystone XL Pipeline, Alaska's Pebble Mine is finally really dead; PLUS: Biden moves to reinstate 'roadless' rule for Alaska's Tongass National Forest... 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): Legal battle could drag on even if Utah sites are restored; Running Industry on Distributed Energy; 13 Refineries Emit Dangerous Benzene Emissions That Exceed the EPA’s ‘Action Level'; Europe’s Drive to Slash Plastic Waste Moves Into High Gear; Massive chemical fire at Illinois plant could burn for days; Minnesota Court Affirms Approval Of Line 3 Oil Pipeline... PLUS: Carbon Capture: Climate Solution Or Prolonging Fossil Fuel Dependency?... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• G7 summit ends with pledges for climate action, few concrete details
• Climate activists criticize lack of details on ending fossil fuels at summit (Washington Post)
• G7 Summit ‘Light And Fluffy’ Climate Plan Falls Short, Disappointing Experts (Forbes)
• VIDEO: Dr. Michael E. Mann discusses the G7 summit and climate (Dr. Michael E. Mann)
• G7 leaders share a bold vision for a net zero future. But the devil is in the lack of detail (CNN):
  
  [Catherine Pettengell, interim head of the UK's branch of Climate Action Network] is particularly concerned about the lack of progress on a climate finance fund agreed to more than a decade ago. By 2020, developed nations were supposed to start transferring $100 billion a year to the developing world to help them adapt to climate change. The idea was that wealthy countries had historically done more to contribute to climate change while poorer nations will be worst affected by its impact.
• G7 nations vow to phase out international financing for coal projects (Washington Post)
• The World's Richest Countries Have Given $190 Billion to the Fossil Fuel Industry Since 2020 Alone (Earther)
• Disturbing mystery 'problem' at Chinese nuclear plant:
• China Taishan plant: 'Performance issue' reported at nuclear facility (BBC)
• Exclusive: US assessing reported leak at Chinese nuclear power facility (CNN)
• China Insists Taishan Nuclear Plant Radiation Levels Normal, Despite Fears (MSN)
• Extreme heat breaking in U.S. West:
• Hottest Temperatures in Arizona and Nevada History Are Possible (NY Times):
  
  A heat wave across the western United States, already facing a severe drought, could deliver temperatures above 125 degrees..."There's no relief overnight, so if people don't have proper air-conditioning and can't cool off, there's not that respite." said Julie Malingowski, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
• Historic heat wave brings 100-degree heat to 40 million in western U.S. (Washington Post/MSN)
• Texas power grid asks users to conserve amid blistering heat (CBS News)
• Drought hits record extent, intensity in U.S. West:
• Maps Illustrate Just How Bad the Drought Really Is (LA Magazine)
• VIDEO: Dangerous heat wave threatens drought-stricken West (CBS News):
  
  Not only does the heat pose a health risk, but the hot weather and drought combined means the ground will only further dry out, making for tinderbox fire conditions. Right now a record-shattering 27 percent of the West is in "exceptional drought" - the highest category. The 20 year record since 2000 was only 11 percent
• It Is 118 Degrees in This Huge American City (MSN)
• Biden to reinstate 'roadless rule' for AK's Tongass National Forest:
• Biden plans to restore protections for Tongass National Forest that were stripped away by Trump. (NY Times):
  
  Climate scientists also point out that the Tongass offers an important service to the billions of people across the planet who are unlikely to ever set foot there: It is one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, storing the equivalent of about 8 percent of the carbon stored in all the forests of the lower 48 states combined.
• Biden to "repeal or replace" Trump rule allowing roads in Alaska's Tongass National Forest (Axios/MSN)
• Alaska's controversial Pebble Mine is really, truly dead:
• Alaska Native Corp. To Protect Its Land, Deals Blow To Pebble Mine (Washington Post):
  
  The deal - which has not been previously reported - will make it difficult for backers of a massive open-pit gold and copper mine to carry out their project because the new protections cover a portion of a critical route the Pebble Limited Partnership plans to use to transport ore from the mine. "I would say if it's not the nail in the coffin, it's just waiting for the last tap of the hammer," Tim Troll, executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust, who helped negotiate the easement, said in a phone interview. Given the agreement, he added, "I just don't see any way that they could do this."
• Conservation deal imperils Pebble mine (E&E News):
  
  The easements will cover three areas...protecting intact sockeye salmon spawning habitat that was threatened by Pebble's planned northern transportation corridor that would be used to transport ore from the copper and gold extraction project. The terms of the easement prohibit any right-of-way agreements with the mine and include restrictions on development.

'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

• What Will Bridge The Gap Between G7 Climate Ambitions And Action? (Forbes)
• Bears Ears NM: Legal battle could drag on even if Utah sites are restored (E&E News)
• VIDEO: Running Industry on Distributed Energy (Climate Crocks)
• 13 Refineries Emit Dangerous Benzene Emissions That Exceed the EPA’s ‘Action Level,’ a Study Finds (Inside Climate News)
• Europe’s Drive to Slash Plastic Waste Moves Into High Gear (Yale e360)
• Exclusive-Shell weighs blockbuster sale of Texas shale assets (Reuters)
• Massive chemical fire at Illinois plant could burn for days (CBS News)
• Colorado bill banning plastic bags and foam containers, repealing preemption, heads to governor (Waste Dive)
• Minnesota Court Affirms Approval Of Line 3 Oil Pipeline (A)
• Brazil Special Force To Protect The Yanomami From Wildcat Gold Miners (Reuters)
• Carbon Capture: Climate Solution Or Prolonging Fossil Fuel Dependency? (Deutsche-Welle)
• The Big Threat of Fences Across the West (The Revelator)
• St. Croix’s Limetree Bay Refinery Could Be Facing Bankruptcy (Inside Climate News)
• Ice Shelf Protecting Antarctic Glacier Is Breaking Up Faster (AP)
• Toxic Waste: Below Aging U.S. Dams, A Potential Toxic Calamity (Salon)
• Nations Must Drop Fossil Fuels, Fast, World Energy Body Warns (NY Times)
• Electric cars: What will happen to all the dead batteries? (BBC)
• Climate Fund Choices for Investors Are Multiplying (Bloomberg/Yahoo)
• 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: Arizona, Alaska, Environment, Joe Biden, Green News, Donald Trump, Coal, Nuclear power/weapons, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, China, Native Americans, Paris Agreement, Dept. of Interior, Public lands, Pebble Mine, G7