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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Raging wildfires force new evacuations in New Mexico; Fires in Siberia spreading out of control because the Russian military is otherwise busy; California approves plan to cut cow burps; PLUS: Arctic wildfire soot is causing Arctic ice to melt even faster… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 5/10/2022

‘Green News Report’ – May 10, 2022  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – May 10, 2022  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Earth given 50-50 chance of hitting key warming mark by 2026; More human remains found in Lake Mead amid historic low water levels; Heat pumps do work in the cold – Americans just don’t know it yet; Coal generating unit catches fire, spews more air pollution in Texas; Analysis shows climate computer models were spot on; The US only recycled about 5 percent of plastic waste last year; Brazil’s Amazon deforestation hits record for month of April; ‘Hard decisions will have to be made’ as Arizona’s water crisis deepens; How Alito tipped his climate hand in anti-abortion draft… PLUS: Extinction obituary: why experts weep for the quiet and beautiful Hawaiian po’ouli… and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• Raging wildfires in New Mexico force new evacuations:
• Crews in New Mexico, Arizona scramble to corral wildfires (AP)
• More New Mexico residents warned they may need to flee several fires (Las Cruces Sun-News):
  The fire that is largest in the U.S. has burned nearly 300 structures including homes, commercial buildings and barns. The tally is likely to be higher since authorities have been unable to access some areas to survey the damage.
• 16,000 Homes Evacuated at NM Wildland Fire (Firehouse)
• VIDEO: News Conference: Governor Lujan Grisham discusses New Mexico wildfire response, FEMA on ground (KRQE-TV)
• Wildfire threatens ‘cultural genocide’ in New Mexico villages (Reuters):
  “Three hundred years of ancestry is there in my family,” said Perea, adjunct professor in Chicana and Chicano studies at the University of New Mexico. “All of that makes it hard, if not impossible to leave.”
• Dangerous fire weather threat to extend to Midwest:
• Southwest faces “extremely critical” wildfire threat as record heat hits Plains (Axios):
  The combination of a heat wave, long-term drought and relentlessly high winds is yielding a historically prolonged period of high wildfire risk across the Southwest. The fire danger may not significantly ease in New Mexico until Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
• Texas shatters heat record as temperature reaches 112F (Yahoo News)
• Spring Heat Wave to Smash Records in the South, Parts of the Midwest Into Late Week (Weather Channel)
• Siberia hit by rare May fires, but Russian military is fighting Ukraine:
• Equilibrium/Sustainability “” Ukraine’s invasion leaves Siberia exposed to wildfire (the Hill)
• There is no one to put out the flames in Siberia because the Russian military burns Ukraine instead (Daily Kos)
• Wildfires Rage in Siberia, Killing at Least 10 (Earther)
• Putin tells local officials to do better on fighting Siberian fires (AP/CNN)
• Siberian wildfires accelerate Arctic ice melt:
• AUDIO: Russia’s war in Ukraine could limit ability to fight wildfires in Siberia, says researcher (CBC Radio)
• U.N. warns wildfires to increase significantly by 2050, 2100:
• Number of wildfires to rise by 50% by 2100 and governments are not prepared, experts warn (UN Environment Programme)
• Europe’s largest floating solar array gearing up:
• Europe’s Largest Floating Solar Farm to Go Online in Portugal (Yale e360)
• Cutting emissions from cattle production:
• Eating one-fifth less beef could halve deforestation (Nature):
  Beef farming is a top driver of deforestation worldwide, and cattle raised for beef are a major source of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Replacing beef with meat alternatives could reduce some of the food production’s environmental footprint…
• Cutting beef consumption by 20% ‘would halve annual deforestation’ (The National News):
  Replacing 20 per cent of the world’s per-capita beef consumption with beef alternatives by 2050 would reduce methane emissions by 11 per cent and halve annual deforestation and associated emissions, a new study indicates.
• CA approves seaweed trial in cattle feed to cut methane emissions:
• To fight climate change, California approves seaweed that cuts methane emissions in cow burps (SF Chronicle):
  On Friday, Blue Ocean Barns, which produces the red seaweed at a farm on the Big Island of Hawaii, announced that the supplement had been approved for use on both conventional and organic dairy farms. Called Brominata, the red seaweed variety has been shown to cut methane emissions in dairy cows by 52% over 50 days but so far has been used only in trials.
• Blue Ocean Barns Brominata Approved for Sale in California (Yahoo News)
• Startup looks to seaweed to cut cows’ impact on climate (Maui News)
• California to allow dairy farms to feed cows with red seaweed (Yahoo News)
• How Eating Seaweed Can Help Cows to Belch Less Methane (Yale e360, 7/2/2018)
• Hold off – for now – on feeding seaweed to cows to reduce methane (op-ed, The Hill)

‘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

• Earth Given 50-50 Chance Of Hitting Key Warming Mark By 2026 (AP)
• More human remains found in Lake Mead amid historic low water levels (USA Today/Yahoo News)
• Coal unit catches fire at NRG’s W.A. Parish Generating Station in Fort Bend County (ABC 13-Fort Bend Co. Texas)
• Heat pumps do work in the cold – Americans just don’t know it yet (Grist)
• IPCC Reviews Climate Models. Turns Out They’ve Been Spot On (Climate Crocks)
• The US only recycled about 5% of plastic waste last year (Grist)
• Extinction obituary: why experts weep for the quiet and beautiful Hawaiian po’ouli (Guardian UK)
• Brazil’s Amazon deforestation hits record for month of April (AP)
• An Extraordinary Heat Wave Exposes the Limits of Protecting People (NY Times)
• “Hard Decisions will Have to Be Made” – Arizona’s Water Crisis Deepens (Climate Crocks)
• AP analysis finds growing number of poor, high-hazard dams (AP)
• How Alito tipped his climate hand in anti-abortion draft (E&E News)
• Four solutions to mitigate climate change, from the IPCC (Dr. Michael Mann, Penn Today)
• UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’ (AP)
• Environmental Sacrifice Zones: 8 Places We’ve Given Up-Probably Forever (Environmental Health Network)
• “Rare Earths” from Coal Waste (Climate Crocks)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy (Foreign Affairs)
• 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.