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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: First named storm of the 2021 hurricane season makes deadly landfall in the U.S.; New study confirms the U.S. Southwest is much drier than just decades ago; The amount of heat trapped by the planet has roughly doubled since 2005; PLUS: Sen. Bernie Sanders draws bright red line against regressive taxes in endless infrastructure talks... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Drought and Record Heat in the West: The Climate Change Connection; Plan to raze 4 dams on California-Oregon line clears hurdle; Companies bet carbon labels can help the climate. Will consumers catch on?; 'Historic': Belgium Court Says Inadequate Climate Policy a Human Rights Violation; UN Irks Australia By Urging That Great Barrier Reef Be Listed 'In Danger'; New Oilfield In African Wilderness Threatens Lives Of 130,000 Elephants... PLUS: City Sinking Into Sea Welcomes Bitcoin Miners... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Tropical Storm Claudette makes deadly landfall in US:
• Claudette regains tropical storm status, heads out to sea after killing at least 14 in Alabama (USA Today)
• Claudette strengthens to a tropical storm again, drenching coastal North Carolina after a deadly weekend in the South (CNN)
• U.S. Southwest is much drier than a few decades ago, new study finds:
• Climate warming leaves the US Southwest high and dry (Nature):
  
  Humidity on summer days has declined since 1950, threatening water supplies and increasing the risk of wildfires.
• California’s hottest, driest days are getting even drier, worsening fire risk (LA Times):
  
  "We have both a temperature and a humidity signal going against us," McKinnon told me. "That’s kind of the worst case, because it means when you already have these hot days, they’re unexpectedly and anomalously dry."
• Wildfires erupt after hottest week in history across parts of the West (NBC News)
• Heat wave raises fears western U.S. states could face severe fire season (MSN/Washington Post)
• How Long Can the West Survive Republican Obstruction on Climate? (The New Republic)
• Why Global Warming Will Cross a Dangerous Threshold in 2036 (Dr. Michael Mann, Scientific American, April 2014)
• Earth's atmosphere now trapping double the heat:
• Joint NASA, NOAA Study Finds Earth's Energy Imbalance Has Doubled (NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory):
  
  "The two very independent ways of looking at changes in Earth's energy imbalance are in really, really good agreement, and they're both showing this very large trend, which gives us a lot of confidence that what we're seeing is a real phenomenon and not just an instrumental artifact, " said Norman Loeb, lead author for the study and principal investigator for CERES at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. "The trends we found were quite alarming in a sense."
• Earth Is Now Trapping An 'Unprecedented' Amount Of Heat, NASA Says (Washington Post):
  
  When there is a positive imbalance — Earth absorbing more heat than it is losing — it is a first step toward global warming, said Stuart Evans, a climate scientist at the University at Buffalo. "It’s a sign the Earth is gaining energy."
• 'Most fundamental' climate metric takes a worrying turn (E&E News)
• Study: Fossil fuel air pollution killed a million people in 2017:
• New research finds 1M deaths in 2017 attributable to fossil fuel combustion (Washington University, St. Louis):
  
  Comprehensive evaluation of source sector, fuel contributions to the PM2.5 disease burden analyzed across over 200 countries
• Over 1 Million People Died in 2017 From Fossil Fuels Being Burned, Study Finds (Science Alert)
• New research finds 1M deaths in 2017 attributable to fossil fuel combustion (Phys.Org)
• Sen. Sanders rejects GOP regressive tax proposals in infrastructure package:
• Sanders: bipartisan infrastructure plan "mostly good," questions funding model (Axios)
• Bipartisan Senate Infrastructure Plan Is a Stalking Horse for Privatization (David Dayen, American Prospect)
• VIDEO: Sanders says no to gas taxes, electric vehicle fees to fund infrastructure deal (NBC News)
• White House Again Opposes Raising Gas Tax Amid Infrastructure Debate (The Hill)
• Pay As You Go Surprise: Republicans back user road fees (Yahoo News/Bloomberg)
• Troubled Limetree Bay Refinery to close permanently:
• Controversial St. Croix refinery ceases operations given ‘extreme financial constraints’ (Washington Post)
• Limetree Bay refinery to shut indefinitely after just a few months of operating (Reuters):
  
  The 210,000 barrel-per-day refinery had only restarted in February after being idle for nearly a decade, but was forced to shut in May after the facility sprayed nearby neighborhoods with a petroleum mist and residents complained of breathing problems. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered the plant shut for at least 60 days after those incidents, which also contaminated the community's water supply.

'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

• Explainer: Drought and Record Heat in the West: The Climate Change Connection (PNAS)
• What tree rings reveal about America's megadrought: How we know the American west is experiencing a once-in-a-millennium drought (Guardian UK)
• Plan to raze 4 dams on California-Oregon line clears hurdle (AP)
• Companies bet carbon labels can help the climate. Will consumers catch on? (Washington Post)
• What lurks beneath: A new answer to more intense storms in storm-water systems (Washington Post)
• 'Historic': Belgium Court Says Inadequate Climate Policy a Human Rights Violation (Common Dreams)
• House To Take Big Step On Eliminating Trump-Era Rules (The Hill)
• UN Irks Australia By Urging That Great Barrier Reef Be Listed 'In Danger' (Reuters)
• City Sinking Into Sea Welcomes Bitcoin Miners (Earther)
• New Oilfield In African Wilderness Threatens Lives Of 130,000 Elephants (Guardian UK)
• Tasmanian Devils Wipe Out Penguins On Tiny Australian Island (Guardian UK)
• Small Farmers in California Face Tough Choices Amidst Drought (Civil Eats)
• Manchin Committee Puts Forth Sprawling Energy Infrastructure Proposal (The Hill)
• 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).

                 

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