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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Gas tanker fire collapses major freeway overpass in PA; Chemical companies agree to billion-dollar settlement, as states sue over PFAS 'forever' chemical contamination in drinking water; Atmospheric CO2 levels spike to new record high; PLUS: Buckle up! El Nino is here to intensify extreme weather around the world... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Landmark 'kids' climate trial begins: how science will take the stand; Tens of thousands of dead fish wash up on a Texas beach due to low oxygen levels; Should Interstate 35 through downtown Duluth be dismantled?; Fossil fuel company net zero plans 'largely meaningless,' report says; Why the U.S. electric grid isn't ready for the energy transition; Farmers under attack for supporting clean energy; Tesla charging network, joining Ford in leveraging the EV leader's tech; Solar, wind covered Belgium’s entire electricity demand for the first time... PLUS: How warming ruined a crab fishery and hurt an Alaskan town... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• El Nino has arrived to mess with extreme weather around the world:
• Here comes El Nino: It’s early, likely to be big, sloppy and add even more heat to a warming world (AP)
• Extreme weather expected as El Nino climate pattern returns, US forecaster says (Reuters):
  
  El Nino has officially returned and is likely to yield extreme weather later this year, from tropical cyclones spinning toward vulnerable Pacific islands to heavy rainfall in South America to drought in Australia and in some parts of Asia. After three years of the La Nina climate pattern, which often lowers global temperatures slightly, the hotter El Nino is back in action...The last time an El Nino was in place, in 2016, the world saw its hottest year on record. Coupled with warming from climate change, 2023 or 2024 could reach new highs.
• NOAA Makes It Official: El Nino Is Here (Paul Douglas, Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• El Ninos cost far more than previously thought over:
• El Ninos are far costlier than once thought, in the trillions, study says — and one's brewing now (AP)
• Where El Nino hits, catastrophe can follow. Report shows weather event's devastating effects (USA Today):
  
  The study is among the first to look at the long-term costs of El Nino, and it projects losses that far exceed those estimated by previous research.
• Persistent effect of El Niño on global economic growt. (Science):
  
  El Nino persistently reduces economic growth and that national economies are sensitive to El Niño even when warming is taken into account. Future global economic growth could decline because of anthropogenic intensification of ENSO variability.
• VIDEO: El Ninos Are Far Costlier Than Once Thought, in the Trillions, Study Says (MSN)
• Heat-trapping CO2 hits new record high level in the atmosphere:
• Amount of warming triggering carbon dioxide in air hits new peak, growing at near-record fast rate (AP):
  
  The cause of global warming is showing no signs of slowing as heat-trapping carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere has increased to record highs in its annual Spring peak.
• Record Pollution and Heat Herald a Season of Climate Extremes (NY Times)
• Gasoline tanker fire causes collapse of I-95 bridge in Philadeliphia:
• Driver lost control of gas-filled tanker before fire collapsed I-95 in Philly (AP):
  
  In the first official accounting of a wreck that threw hundreds of thousands of morning commutes into chaos and disrupted untold numbers of businesses, state Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said the driver was northbound "trying to navigate the curve, lost control of the vehicle, landed on its side and ruptured the tank."
• VIDEO: Section of major I-95 highway in Philadelphia that collapsed after tanker truck caught fire underneath could take months to repair, officials say (CNN):
  
  "This is a major artery for people and goods, and the closure will have significant impacts on the city and region until reconstruction and recovery are complete," Buttigieg said on Twitter. "Our department will be there with support throughout the process of I-95 returning to normal."
• VIDEO: Things That Won’t Happen When we Electrify Everything (Climate Crocks)
• States sue as 3 PFAS chemical manufacturers agree to billion-dollar settlement:
• Three companies agree to pay more than $1 billion to settle ‘forever chemical’ claims (CNN):
  
  In June, based on the latest science, the EPA issued health advisories that said the chemicals are much more hazardous to human health than scientists originally thought and are probably more dangerous even at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed.
• States Sue DuPont, 3M in Search of Funds for PFAS Cleanup Costs (Bloomberg):
  
  "Those who cause the harm should be the ones who front those dollars, not the taxpayers," Doll said. "That’s what the AGs are leaning into."
• VIDEO: Maine AG Aaron Frey on PFAS lawsuit (CNBC)
• States sue 3M, DuPont over toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found in drinking water (CNBC)
• Chemical giants reach $1.2B settlement over ‘forever chemicals’ in water (Washington Post)
• PFAS companies 3M and Dupont knew their product was toxic, deceived the public:
• Industry Documents Show Corporate Ghouls Knew About Forever Chemicals for Decades (Earther)
• The Devil they Knew: Chemical Documents Analysis of Industry Influence on PFAS Science (Annals of Global Health)
• Chemical Industry Used Big Tobacco's Tactics To Conceal Evidence Of PFAS Risks (Guardian):
  
  Like the tobacco industry before it, the chemical industry managed to keep PFAS’s health risks hidden from the public for decades. A new peer-reviewed study dissecting PFAS producers’ public relations strategies provides a smoking gun timeline composed of industry studies and comments from DuPont and 3M officials showing they knew the dangers, but publicly insisted the chemicals were safe.
• Industry knew about risks of PFAS 'forever chemicals' for decades before push to restrict them, study says (CBC):
  
  Woodruff and her team's analysis found that the companies had evidence by the 1970s —decades before public health and government authorities turned their attention to the chemicals — that some PFAS were toxic to humans, based on lab reports and health impacts on employees, but downplayed those impacts in public messaging or obscured what they had found.
• Army Corps nixes crucial permit for proposed Minnesota copper/nickel mine:
• US Army Corps revokes permit for Minnesota mine, cites threat to downstream tribe's water standards (AP):
  
  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has revoked a crucial federal permit for the proposed NewRange Copper Nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, saying the permit did not comply with the water quality standards set by a sovereign downstream tribe.
• U.S. Army Corps revokes key NorthMet copper nickel mining permit (MPR News):
  
  The decision does not deal a fatal blow to the project. NewRange Copper Nickel, a new joint venture between PolyMet and Teck that now controls the deposit, can submit a new application for a wetlands permit. The company could also challenge the decision in federal court.

'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

• Landmark 'kids' climate trial begins: how science will take the stand (Nature)
• Tens of thousands of dead fish wash up on a Texas beach due to low oxygen levels (AP)
• Should Interstate 35 through downtown Duluth be dismantled? (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• Fossil fuel company net zero plans 'largely meaningless,' report says (Reuters)
• Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn’t Ready for the Energy Transition (NY Times)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (Climate Crocks)
• GM to use Tesla charging network, joining Ford in leveraging the EV leader's tech (CNBC)
• In Smoke Emergency, Fossil Fuel "Expert" Insists Dirty Air is 'no Health Risk' (Climate Crocks)
• New California Study Shows Siting Community Solar + Storage on Large Urban Roofs Creates More Value than Projects on Open Land (Solar Landscape, press release)
• Young Activists Testify At US’s First Constitutional Climate Trial (Guardian)
• PacifiCorp verdict finds utility negligent in four Labor Day wildfires; jury awards victims nearly $72 million (The Oregonian)
• Solar, wind covered Belgium’s entire electricity demand for the first time (PV Magazine)
• The Future of Water: a rethinking of how we use, manage and value one of our most important resources (The Revelator)
• UN Paris Meeting Presses Ahead With Binding Plastics Treaty — US Resists (Mongabay)
• How Warming Ruined a Crab Fishery and Hurt an Alaskan Town (Yale e360)
• The US clean energy manufacturing boom has begun. Now what? (Canary Media)
• Hansen: Earth on Track for Catastrophic Warming (Climate Crocks)
• These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms (CNN)
• 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)
• 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.

                 

Article Categories: Pennsylvania, Environment, Minnesota, Green News, Oil, Climate change, Water, Transportation, Dow DuPont, NOAA, Pollution