Follow and stream @GreenNewsReport!…



(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Biden EPA moves to lower levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water; Ohio sues Norfolk Southern over chemical train derailment disaster; PLUS: One state generates much more renewable energy than any other — and it’s not California… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 3/16/2023

‘Green News Report’ – March 16, 2023  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – March 16, 2023  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

30s 30s

0:00 0:00

Download Episode Link to this page Embed on your site! Subscribe RSS/Podcast

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): EPA finalizes ‘good neighbor’ rule to cut down on harmful smog and pollution from power plants; Is common industrial chemical TCE fueling the spread of Parkinson’s Disease?; Vanuatu hit by two cyclones and twin earthquakes in two days; Floods kill 14 in Turkish earthquake-battered provinces; ‘Endless, brutal heat’: Argentina’s late-season heatwave has ‘no similarities in history’; Tribes, federal government not informed of oilsands toxic waste spill for 9 months; Blueberries have joined green beans in this year’s Dirty Dozen list; Texas officials target climate science in textbooks… PLUS: Nike to drop use of kangaroo skins for its shoes in 2023… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• February 2023 was 4th hottest on record:
• February 2023 was Earth’s 4th-warmest February on record (Yale Climate Connections)
• February 2023 was Earth’s 4th warmest on record (NOAA)
• Tropical Cyclone Freddy still wreaking havoc in southeastern Africa:
• Survivors in shock as Cyclone Freddy toll passes 300 in Malawi, Mozambique (Reuters/MSN)
• VIDEO: Climate fingerprints all over record-setting Cyclone Freddy (Matthew Cappucci, Twitter)
• Tropical Cyclone Freddy wanes after battering Malawi, Mozambique (ABC Australia)
• Unprecedented Wonder: Tropical Cyclone Freddy’s Record-Breaking Month-Long Journey Across the Indian Ocean (SciTech Daily)
• Factbox-Why is Cyclone Freddy a record-breaking storm? (Reuters/MSN)
• Lashing Mozambique, Freddy has become Earth’s most energetic cyclone on record (Washington Post/MSN)
• Factbox-Why is Cyclone Freddy a record-breaking storm? (Reuters/MSN)
• Climate change wreaking havoc on African countries’ economies:
• As climate woes worsen, Africa’s economies suffer, UN says (AP):
  Up to 9 percent of some African nations’ budgets is being spent on responding to extreme weather events, findings at a U.N. conference for African finance ministers revealed in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on Wednesday
• Massive Sargassum seaweed bloom, toxic red tide hitting Florida beaches:
• Meet the sargassum belt, a 5,000-mile-long snake of seaweed circling Florida (NPR):
  [S]cientists noticed a change in sargassum levels in 2011, when masses of the seaweed multiplied, gaining in density and size, becoming so big they were captured on satellite images…The exact drivers of the growth are still a bit “shrouded in mystery,” says Brian Lapointe, a research professor with Florida Atlantic University, who’s been studying sargassum for over 40 years. His hypothesis is that it has to do with how humans are altering the nitrogen cycle. We’re using more fertilizer, burning biomass, cutting down forests and increasing wastewater from cities, all of which sends ammonium, nitrate and phosphate down major river systems.
• VIDEO: Red tide is back in Florida, killing fish and impacting human health. Here’s what to know about the toxic bloom. (CBS News)
• What to know about the ‘red tide’ hitting Florida beaches (NPR)
• VIDEO: Red tide is flaring up in Southwest Florida. How safe is it to eat fish and other seafood? (USA Today/MSN)
• VIDEO: A giant floating blob of seaweed is heading toward the coast of Florida. What is sargassum? (CBS News)
• Ohio sues Norfolk Southern over chemical train derailment disaster:
• Ohio sues Norfolk Southern over the train derailment in East Palestine (AP)
• Ohio AG Dave Yost sues Norfolk Southern over East Palestine train derailment (Cleveland Plain Dealer):
  When Yost was asked for a dollar figures of the damages he was seeking, he replied, “lots — maybe lots and lots.” He said he couldn’t yet offer a specific number, though he said the cleanup will be expensive and it will take “significant dollars to put the people in East Palestine back as close as possible to the position they were before February.”
• VIDEO: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announces lawsuit against Norfolk Southern for train derailment (News 5 Cleveland)
• Company Testing Air in East Palestine Homes Was Hired by Norfolk Southern (Inside Climate News)
• EPA moves to limit levels of cancer-causing PFAS chemicals:
• EPA sets ‘groundbreaking’ limits on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water (Guardian):
  The US Environmental Protection Agency has taken the extraordinary step of setting legal drinking water limits for six of the most studied and toxic PFAS compounds…The new limits mark the first time in 26 years that the EPA has set legal limits for a contaminant in drinking water. Municipal utilities will be required to remove the compounds from drinking water, which could set off a wave of lawsuits directed at PFAS polluters, including the US military and chemical producers like 3M, DuPont and Chemours.
• EPA proposes very low nationwide PFAS limits for drinking water (MLive)
• VIDEO: EPA Chief Regan Announces Latest Action to Address PFAS in Drinking Water (EPA/Youtube)
• EPA proposes first standards to make drinking water safer from ‘forever chemicals’ (CNN)
• Biden Administration to Restrict Cancer-Causing ‘Forever Chemicals’ (NY Times)
• Texas is the nation’s renewable energy leader:
• One State Generates Much, Much More Renewable Energy Than Any Other—and It’s Not California (Inside Climate News):
  This isn’t new. Texas has produced more gigawatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources than any other state for several years running, thanks largely to wind energy. Now, the state is expanding its lead by continuing to be the county’s leader in wind energy, by a mile, and quickly closing the gap on California on utility-scale solar power.
• These Small- and Medium-Sized States Punch Above Their Weight in Renewable Energy Generation (Inside Climate News)

‘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

• EPA finalizes ‘good neighbor’ rule to cut down on harmful smog and pollution from power plants (CNN)
• Is A Common Industrial Chemical Fueling The Spread Of Parkinson’s Disease? (LA Times)
• Vanuatu hit by two cyclones and twin earthquakes in two days (ABC Australia)
• Floods kill 14 in Turkish earthquake-battered provinces (AP)
• After Cyclone Freddy, flood risk lingers for southern Africa (AP)
• Haaland reverses Trump-era Izembek road decision in Alaska (E&E News)
• Trains in the West then, now – and someday? (High Country News)
• ‘You need water for everything’: Pregnant people and parents struggle to find safe water in Jackson (19th News)
• Nike to drop use of kangaroo skins for its shoes in 2023 (Reuters/MSN)
• ‘Endless, brutal heat’: Argentina’s late-season heatwave has ‘no similarities in history’ (CNN)
• Ottawa Has Questions About that Oilsands Toxic Waste Spill: Information kept from First Nations, Environment Canada (The Tyee)
• Blueberries have joined green beans in this year’s Dirty Dozen list| (CNN)
• Water Restrictions Lifted For Millions in SoCal, But Conservation Urged (LA Times)
• California Salmon Season Is Canceled For The First Time Since 2009 (Sacramento Bee)
• Texas Officials Target Climate Science In Textbooks (E&E News)
• Arctic Ice Has Seen An ‘Irreversible’ Thinning Since 2007, Study Says (Washington Post)
• Why It’s Time to Officially Get Over Your EV Range Anxiety (Inside Climate News)
• 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.