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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season is finally over, and it was a costly record-breaker; U.S. is the world's biggest contributor to plastic pollution; Big breakthrough could charge electric vehicles in five minutes; PLUS: A ray of sunshine for monarch butterflies... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy; Oil giant Shell strikes deal to buy power from 'world’s largest offshore wind farm'; Michigan to drop federal lawsuit against Enbridge over Line 5; Solar and crop production research shows ‘multi-solving’ climate benefits; Feds declare East Coast herring fishery a disaster; Poll: US majority supports EV transition by 2030; Climate change is making it harder to provide clean drinking water in farm country; Snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada could disappear in just 25 years... PLUS: Fossil fuel firms to make billions from tax break in Dems’ budget bill... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• 2021 Atlantic hurricane season was a costly record-breaker:
• Top-10 weirdest things about the bonkers 2021 Atlantic hurricane season (Yale Climate Connections):
  
  2021 marked the sixth consecutive year with an ACE index above 129: "this has never happened before, not during the satellite era, not since records begin in 1851. This sustained level of tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic is unprecedented even for four years, let alone six!"...One hurricane will surely get its name retired – Ida, with $64.5 billion in damage and 96 deaths, ranking as the fifth most costly weather disaster in world history, according to NOAA.
• Active 2021 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends (NOAA)
• Atlantic hurricane season more costly than record-breaking one in 2020 (AP)
• U.S. On Pace for Record Number of Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters (Yale e360, 10/12/2021)
• U.S. is world's biggest contributor to plastic pollution:
• Science report: US should make less plastic to save oceans (AP)
• Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste (National Academies Press)
• 'Deluge of plastic waste': US is world's biggest plastic polluter (Guardian UK):
  
  Plastic waste has increased sharply in the US since 1960, with the country now generating about 42 million metric tons of plastic waste a year, amounting to about 130kg of waste for every person in America. This total is more than all European Union member countries combined....The committee's report recommends that a new national strategy is required by the end of next year to stem the flow of plastics into the ocean. The strategy, the report states, should aim to slash plastic production, particularly for plastics not reusable or recyclable, help promote alternative materials that can be reused and set better standards for waste collection and capture.
• Plastic Nurdles: The Worst Toxic Waste You've Probably Never Heard Of (Guardian UK)
• Biden EPA releases national recycling strategy:
• EPA's 2030 recycling strategy turns focus to circular economy and environmental justice (Waste Dive):
  
  The final version, issued on America Recycles Day, includes five main objectives for making progress beyond the current rate of 32%. These include improving markets for recyclables, increasing and improving collection, reducing contamination in the stream and creating policies with a more holistic, circular economy approach that go beyond the recycling system. It also calls for standardizing measurement practices and increasing data collection needed to achieve the goal.
• EPA Unveils First National Recycling Strategy to Help Curb Climate Change, Health Concerns (Newsweek/MSN)
• IEA report: renewable energy deployment surges but is still too slow:
• Renewables 2021 Market Report (International Energy Agency)
• IEA says renewable power installations are set for a record year, warns of net-zero uncertainty (CNBC)
• 2021 will be an all-time, record-breaking year for clean energy installations (Electrek):
  
  China is the global leader. It's expected to install 1,200 GW of total wind and solar capacity by 2026. That's four years earlier than its current target of 2030. India is set to have the highest rate of growth, doubling new installations compared with 2015-2020. Europe and the US are also expected to escalate up significantly from the previous five years.
• IEA director blames oil/gas producers for soaring oil/gas prices in Europe:
• IEA’s Birol Says Energy Producers Are Key Cause of Price Spike (Bloomberg):
  
  The price spike is the result of factors including demand growth, supply outages and extreme-weather events, "but also --- I want to underline this --- some of the deliberate policies of energy producers," Birol said at the European Hydrogen Week conference in Brussels. He didn’t name specific producers.
• Innovation: New cable could charge EVs in 5 minutes:
• A new type of charging cable could charge electric cars in 5 minutes — way less than Tesla's Superchargers (Business Insider/MSN):
  
  They've done this by addressing one of the key challenges hindering charging speed: overheating. The faster current flows through a charging system, the hotter everything gets, from the battery to the charging cable.
• VIDEO: Electric vehicles could fully recharge in under 5 minutes with new charging station cable design (Purdue University)
• A ray of hope for Western monarch butterflies:
• Monarch butterflies may be thriving after years of decline. Is it a comeback? (Guardian UK):
  
  The butterflies have also felt the impact of extreme heat, fires, and drought, as well as the severe winter storms on the California coast where they spend the winter...But even if last year's low numbers can be attributed to behavior changes, that's still a sign climate crisis is causing problems. "They are indicating to us that things are going wrong," James says.
• After record low, monarch butterflies return to California (AP)
• AUDIO: The butterflies are back! Annual migration of monarchs shows highest numbers in years (NPR)
• Nectar and Milkweed Guides: Monarch Nectar Plant Guides (Monarch Milkweed Mapper):
  
  A series of regional guides to native, evidence-based monarch attracting nectar plants available for 15 regions in the U.S. Western guides are listed below:

'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

• Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy (Foreign Affairs)
• Oil giant Shell strikes deal to buy power from 'world’s largest offshore wind farm' (CNBC)
• Michigan to drop federal lawsuit against Enbridge over Line 5; pursue state court case (Detroit Free Press)
• America's first offshore wind farm cut power bills, draws tourists (NOLA)
• Solar and crop production research shows ‘multi-solving’ climate benefits (Yale Climate Connections)
• Feds declare East Coast herring fishery a disaster (AP)
• Poll: US majority supports EV transition by 2030, and there's "generational urgency" behind it (Green Car Reports)
• Climate change is making it harder to provide clean drinking water in farm country (NPR)
• Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots Is a Smart Green Move (Yale e360)
• Snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada could disappear in just 25 years (SF Chronicle)
• Gas Exports Backfire on US Consumers, Generators (Climate Crocks)
• Jordan Cove Developers Abandon Plans For Pipeline, Coos Bay LNG Terminal (Roseburg News-Review)
• The Arctic Could Get More Rain And Less Snow Sooner Than Projected (Washington Post)
• Fossil Fuel Firms To Make Billions From Tax Break in Dems’ Budget Bill (Inside Climate News)
• New York Will Underground New Transmission Line (Climate Crocks)
• How to Repair the World's Broken Carbon Offset Markets (Yale e360)
• The World's First Solar-Powered Steel Mill Is Here (Earther)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• Guilt, grief and anxiety as young people fear for climate's future (Reuters)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• An Empire of Dying Wells: Old oil and gas sites are a climate menace. Meet the company that owns more of America's decaying wells than any other. (Bloomberg)
• 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 9 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• 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.

                 

Article Categories: Environment, Green News, EPA, Natural gas, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, China, Electric vehicles, Paris Agreement, Pollution, Hurricane Ida