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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: U.N. plastics treaty negotiations collapse in South Korea; U.N. COP29 climate talks end with weak agreement in Azerbaijan; PLUS: Extreme drought is an immigration issue, study warns... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Landmark climate change case opens at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas; Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems; Here’s what happened when experts at COP29 played a climate change board game; How MAGA wants jurists to reshape climate policy; A warning from California's record marine heat wave; UN calls for $2.6 trillion investment to reverse land degradation; News Corp's ‘Special Report’ on natural gas was paid for by industry... PLUS: Inside the plastic industry's battle to win over hearts and minds... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Record extreme snowfall paralyzes the Great Lakes, Northeast:
• 5-plus feet of snow and counting: More snow is coming to the already buried Great Lakes (CNN)
• VIDEO: Record snow slams millions in the Northeast, Great Lakes region (NBC News)
• Explainer: Lake-Effect Snow's Jaw Dropping Records Across The US Great Lakes (Weather Underground)
• 2024 hurricane season was a record-breaker:
• The weirdly hyperactive 2024 Atlantic hurricane season ends (Yale Climate Connections):
  
  The season then resumed in ferocious fashion, with 11 named storms, seven hurricanes, and four major hurricanes after Sep. 24, setting numerous records for late-season activity (e.g., the seven hurricanes that formed after September 25 were the most on record for the tail end of a season.
• VIDEO: Looking Back at the 2024 Hurricane Season (This Is Not Cool blog)
• 2024 hurricane season breaks multiple records (USA Today)
• AccuWeather Report: $500 billion in damage and economic loss estimated after destructive and unprecedented hurricane season (Accuweather)
• 2024 Hurricane Season Recap: A busy year in the Atlantic, a historic season for Florida (NBC-Fort Myers)
• Climate change is increasing hurricane wind speeds, study finds (Axios)
• Extreme drought is a driver of immigration:
• Weather deviations linked to undocumented migration and return between Mexico and the United States (PNAS)
• Weather extremes influence illegal migration and return between the U.S. and Mexico, study finds (AP):
  
  People from agricultural areas in Mexico were more likely to cross the border illegally after droughts and were less likely to return to their original communities when extreme weather continued, according to research this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...In Mexico, a country of nearly 130 million people, drought has drained reservoirs dry, created severe water shortages and drastically reduced corn production, threatening livelihoods.
• Drought Is an Immigration Issue: And Trump’s climate policies are designed to ignore that. (The Atlantic):
  
  When drought strikes rural corn farmers in Mexico during the growing season, they are more likely to attempt to immigrate to the United States the following year out of economic desperation.
• Drought and aridity influence internal migration worldwide (Nature):
  
  We find that increased drought and aridity have a significant impact on internal migration, particularly in the hyper-arid and arid areas of Southern Europe, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East and South America. Migration patterns are shaped by the wealth, agricultural dependency and urbanization of both origin and destination areas with migration responses being stronger in rural and predominantly agricultural areas...[Trump's plans are] "sort of like turning the heat up on a boiling pot and then forcing the lid shut."
• The climate crisis, migration, and refugees (Brookings Institution, 7/25/2019)
• COP29 concludes with weak agreement on financing:
• A $300B a year deal for climate cash at UN summit sparks outrage for some and hope for others (AP):
  
  The $300 billion will go to developing countries who need the cash to wean themselves off the coal, oil and gas that causes the globe to overheat, adapt to future warming and pay for the damage caused by climate change’s extreme weather. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for...
• VIDEO: Climate Talks End With a Bitter Fight and a Deal on Money (NY Times):
  
  The deal struck at the annual U.N.-sponsored climate talks calls on private companies and international lenders like the World Bank to cover the hundreds of billions in the shortfall. That was seen by some as a kind of escape clause for rich countries.
• How Saudi Arabia Turned Back Climate Progress at COP29 (Bloomberg, no paywall):
  
  Saudi Arabia and its allies had two words they didn’t want to see repeated in a COP29 deal: "fossil fuels." The faction got their way after two weeks of bitter negotiations in Azerbaijan, reversing gains made in earlier climate talks and helping to knock this year’s proceedings off track...After three decades of being the main opposition at the annual climate talks, the Saudis have developed a sophisticated playbook, according to veteran negotiators.
• Not Just a Cash Handout: Climate diplomacy's $300 billion failure (The Atlantic, no paywall):
  
  The countries that are bearing the brunt of climate change largely didn’t emit the carbon causing it. And the wealthiest countries failed to make a financial commitment even close to what was needed. "They're really finding ways to avoid their responsibility," Nafkote Dabi, the climate-change-policy lead at Oxfam International, told me.
• U.N. plastic treaty talks collapse in division over plastic production cap:
• UN plastics treaty talks fail after oil producers block output limits (Financial Times, no paywall):
  
  Negotiations over the first legally binding UN treaty on plastic pollution collapsed in the final stage of discussions, after oil-producing nations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia blocked efforts by 100 countries to place limits on new production.
• What to know about the plastic pollution treaty talks that have concluded in South Korea (AP):
  
  The most contentious issue of the talks has been whether there will be a limit on the amount of plastic that companies are allowed to produce. Panama proposed text for the treaty to address plastic production and support for it quickly grew to over 100 countries...Juan Carlos Monterrey, the head of Panama’s delegation, said Monday that the nations standing up for a strong treaty may have been delayed, but they will not be stopped.
• VIDEO: UN talks fail to agree on global plastic pollution treaty (DW News)
• No global treaty reached on cutting plastic production, talks to resume next year (CBC):
  
  Saudi Arabia's negotiator said chemicals and plastic production are not within the scope of the treaty. Speaking on behalf of the Arab group, he said if the world addresses plastic pollution, there should be no problem producing plastic.
• The US no longer supports capping plastic production in UN treaty (Grist)
• 5 firms in alliance 'made 1,000 time more plastic than they cleaned up' (Guardian)

'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 climate change case opens at the top UN court as island nations fear rising seas (AP)
• Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems (Mongabay)
• Here’s what happened when experts at COP29 played a climate change board game (AP)
• How MAGA wants jurists to reshape climate policy (Axios)
• EPA proposes limits on nitrous oxides, hrmful pollutant from power plants (NY Times)
• Helene Victims Hit FEMA Response. Wait Till Project 2025 Cancels FEMA. (This Is Not Cool blog)
• A Warning From a California Marine Heat Wave (NY Times)
• EPA takes partial step to ban chlorpyrifos in move called 'unconscionable' (The New Lede)
• UN calls for $2.6 trillion investment to reverse land degradation (Yahoo News)
• News Corp's ‘Special Report’ on natural gas paid for by industry (Guardian)
• Oregon tribe has hunting and fishing rights restored under court ruling (AP)
• Inside the plastic industry's battle to win over hearts and minds (NY Times)
• The Climate Fight Will Continue (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration? (Pro Publica)
• Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point? (The Oceanography Society)
• How Oil Companies Manipulate Journalists (Drilled)
• Abrupt reduction in shipping emission as an inadvertent geoengineering termination shock produces substantial radiative warming (Nature)
• How To Spot 5 Of The Fossil Fuel Industry's Biggest Disinformation Tactics (Guardian)
• The Oceans We Knew Are Already Gone (The Atlantic)
• Plug-in hybrids vs. electric cars: We did the math on which is better for you (Washington Post)
• How to electrify your life when you rent (The Verge)
• Complete Series: Farmers Under Attack for Supporting Clean Energy (This Is Not Cool blog)
• Feeling Overwhelmed About Going All-Electric at Home? Here's How to Get Started (Inside Climate News)
• Feeling Hopeless About the Climate? Try Our 30-Day Action Plan (The Revelator)
• Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration (Pro Publica)
• Exxon's Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)

                 

Article Categories: Mexico, United Nations, Environment, Green News, Russia, Oil, Climate change, Agriculture, Saudi Arabia, Paris Agreement, South Korea, Pollution, Azerbaijan