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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Ohio residents sue over fiery chemical train derailment after governor’s decision to release toxic chemicals; Exxon drops its algae biofuel charade; PLUS: Electric vehicles dominate Super Bowl ads, signaling potential culture shift… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 2/14/2023

‘Green News Report’ – February 14, 2023  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – February 14, 2023  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): As climate change disrupts ecosystems, a new outbreak of bird flu spreads to mammals; Deep sea mining noise poses harm to blue whales, scientists warn; Coal ash waste along shores of Great Lakes threatens water quality; US’s first solar panels over canals pilot will deploy iron flow batteries; Ford to build EV battery plant in Michigan, use Chinese tech; Orphan well cleanup in Pennsylvania underscores enormity of task … PLUS: Farewell radiators? Testing out electric infrared wallpaper … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Ohio residents sue over fiery chemical train derailment:
• Residents near Ohio train derailment report dead fish and chickens as authorities say it’s safe to return (NBC News)
• Health concerns grow in East Palestine, Ohio, after train derailment (NPR)
• Train derailment: East Palestine Ohio residents file lawsuit seeking medical testing (AP)
• VIDEO 3 additional chemicals discovered on East Palestine train derailment (WKBN-Youngstown)
“We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open,” said Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist…”There’s a lot of what ifs, and we’re going to be looking at this thing 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the line and wondering, ‘Gee, cancer clusters could pop up’, you know, well water could go bad,” Caggiano said.
• VIDEO: Health concerns mounting as animals become sick after train derailment (WBKN-Youngstown)
• Train derailment prompts water utility to take precautions (AP
• Rail Companies Blocked Safety Rules Before Ohio Derailment (Lever News)
• Shell Oil posts record profits, gets sued for climate negligence:
• ExxonMobil, Shell lead Big Oil’s eye-watering $221 billion profit binge that Biden has slammed as ‘outrageous’ (Business Insider)
• Shell Oil Board Members Sued Personally over Climate Neglect (Bloomberg):
  Two years after a Dutch court ordered Shell to slash its emissions, ClientEarth are filing the first lawsuit of its kind anywhere in the world against 11 members of the board, accusing them of failing to manage the company’s climate risks.
• Shell’s board of directors sued over climate strategy in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit (CNBC)
• Shell, BP boost profit, sink investment in renewable energy (Deutsche-Welle News)
• Exxon drops its algae biofuel charade:
• Exxon Gives Up on Much-Hyped Algae Biofuels (Earther)
• VIDEO: Exxon: We Were Just Joking About Oil from Algae (Climate Crocks)
• Exxon Retreats From Major Climate Effort to Make Biofuels From Algae (Bloomberg/Yahoo News):
  It’s a remarkable shift for Exxon…The green goop has for years been prominently featured as a climate-friendly possibility in television ads and investor presentations. Exxon is retreating from algae despite a smashing financial performance last year, in which it posted a record-breaking $59 billion in profits. And it comes just as the algae research has shown significant progress.
• BP scales back climate targets as profits hit record (BBC)
• UN Sec.-Gen. Guterres castigates powerful oil industry:
• The U.N. Secretary-General’s searing message for the fossil fuel industry (New Yorker)
• VIDEO: Antonio Guterres (UN Secretary-General) on his priorities for 2023 (UN Web TV)
• UN Secretary-General: ‘No more baby steps’ on climate change (USA Today):
  “We must end the merciless, relentless and senseless war on nature. It is putting our world at immediate risk of hurtling past the 1.5-degree temperature increase limit and now still moving toward a deadly 2.8 degrees.”
• Transcript: Secretary-General’s briefing to the General Assembly on Priorities for 2023 (United Nations)
• ‘Act decisively before it is too late’, Guterres warns countries, laying out his priorities for 2023 (UN News)
• EVs dominate Super Bowl LVII auto ads
• From Ram’s ‘premature electrification’ to Will Ferrell’s zombie apocalypse, this year’s Super Bowl ads had 1 common theme (The Cool Down/MSN)
• Netflix to include more EVs in its TV shows and movies as part of new partnership with GM (Tech Crunch)
• VIDEO: Despite EV Push, Most Automakers Opt Out of 2023 Super Bowl Ads (PC Mag):
  “Entertainment has a huge impact on culture,” says Deborah Wahl, global chief marketing officer at GM. “We want to make EVs famous on streaming, small and silver screens to build an EV culture through storytelling that incorporates the experiences of driving and owning an EV.”
• Will Ferrell Invades Stranger Things, Squid Game & Bridgerton In Super Bowl Ad (Screen Rant)
• VIDEO: ‘Premature Electrification (The Verge)
• Here’s where Super Bowl EV ads go flat “” good luck finding that featured car or SUV (MarketWatch/MSN):
  Sunday’s captive Super Bowl audience did turn the night’s few vehicle ads, including for all-electric offerings, into a burst of online searches for a new set of wheels, according to at least one shopping and research site, Cars.com.

‘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

• As climate change disrupts ecosystems, a new outbreak of bird flu spreads to mammals (Grist)
• Deep sea mining noise poses harm to blue whales, scientists warn (Guardian)
• Farewell radiators? Testing out electric infrared wallpaper (BBC)
• Coal Ash Along the Shores of the Great Lakes Threatens Water Quality as Residents Rally for Change (Inside Climate News)
• US’s first solar panels over canals pilot will deploy iron flow batteries (Electrek)
• Ford to build EV battery plant in Michigan, use Chinese tech (E&E News)
• Orphan Well Cleanup in Pennsylvania Underscores Enormity of Task (Bloomberg)
• Oil Industry Flags Concern About EPA’s Methane ‘Super Emitter’ Plan (Reuters)
• Groups Urge Feds To Track Illnesses Common After BP Spill (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
• Washing Machines And Fridges Could Be Much Cheaper To Power By 2027 (Washington Post)
• NPS Completes Largest Move Of Yellowstone Bison To Tribal Land (E&E News)
• Carbon capture project is ‘Band-Aid’ to greenwash $10bn LNG plant, locals say (Guardian UK)
• Building Steam in Lithium Valley (The American Prospect)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here’s How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: See what three degrees of global warming looks like (The Economist/YouTube)
• The 7 climate tipping points that could change the world forever (Grist)
• The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world (Guardian UK)
• 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)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• VIDEO: 2050: what happens if we ignore the climate crisis (Guardian UK)
• 99.9 percent Of Scientists Agree Climate Emergency Caused By Humans (Guardian UK)
• 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)
• 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.