IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: The rising cost of fighting wildfires; JAWS is back?!?; Back to school with swine flu... PLUS: Van Jones, an advocate for green jobs, loses his own ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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': Why not spend $21 billion on solar power from space?; Dams, water conservation at issue in water reform; NBC explores 'toxic town' where residents were paid to pack and leave; Innovation in energy efficient lighting with Organic Light Emitting Diodes; Wind Energy "NIMBY Backlash?"; Lithium shortage to short out electric cars? Not so much ... PLUS: Big Oil creates phony climate denial site, then lies about it!....

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• Cost of fighting Station fire tops $43 million: State officials hope FEMA grants will help offset its multimillion-dollar portion of the firefighting efforts. The U.S. Forest Service will pay the largest share; L.A. County will bear some cost.(LA Times)
• A political lesson from the fire lines: Fire departments became civic responsibilities more than a century ago, when the communal risk demanded a communal solution (LA Times)
  And there is this too: Even in this season of political discontent, when healthcare town halls across the nation resound with demands that government stay out of people's lives, a strikingly opposite view dominates among those watching flames lick toward their homes.
• Damage, pollution from wildfires could surge as western U.S. warms (American Geophysical Union, Harvard University)
• Global Warming Fuels U.S. Forest Fires (Live Science)
• STUDY: "Homes in Wildfire-Prone Areas: An Empirical Analysis of Wildfire Suppression Costs and Climate Change" [.pdf] (Headwaters Economics)
• White Sharks Cause Stir on Cape Cod (Dot Earth)
• Two great white sharks tagged off coast of Chatham; a third one identified (Boston Globe)
• Emptied Mediterranean - Sharks Nearly Gone (June, 2008 NY Times)
• 2,000 Washington State Students Report Signs of Swine Flu (NY Times)
• Some 2,000 students at one university report swine flu symptoms (AFP)
• BRAD BLOG: Fox 'News' Thought Police Win: Van Jones Resigns
• 'High-Tech Lyching' of Van Jones Signals McCarthyism Alive and Well (Brad Blog)
• WATCH: Van Jones at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, August 2009 [approx. 8 min.]:
  
  "There is so much work that needs to be done in this country to retrofit America, to cut these energy bills. And there are so many people who need work. This is our opportunity as a country — and it comes around very rarely — to take the people that most need work, and connect them to the work that most needs to be done, to fight pollution and poverty at the same time, and be one country. Let’s be one country." [emphasis added]
• White House Official Resigns After G.O.P. Criticism (NY Times)
• Glenn Beck up, left down and Van Jones defiant (Politico)
• A Hundred Ways Of Looking At Van Jones (The Atlantic) [emphasis added]:
  
  Jones had given the Green Jobs meme more than a patina of respect even among Republicans, and because of these sins, he was dangerous to conservative and libertarian anti-environmentalists.
• Particularly recommended!: Jane Hamsher: Van Jones: A Moment of Truth For Liberal Institutions in the Veal Pen (FireDogLake)
• David Roberts: Thoughts on Van Jones’ resignation (Grist.org)
• Arianna Huffington: Thank You, Glenn Beck! (Huffington Post)
• Blue Texan: Is There Anything More Ridiculous Than Republicans Complaining about “Extremist Views and Coarse Rhetoric”? (FireDogLake)
• Jeremy Scahill: Rep. Mike Pence, Who Led Witch Hunt Against Van Jones, Took $1000s From Extremist Erik Prince (Rebel Reports)
• Carl Pope, Exec. Director, Sierra Club: We All Blew It (Huffington Post)
• David Sirota: Obama Sells Us Out to Political Terrorist Glenn Beck & His Lynch Mob (Huffington Post)
• Don Hazen: 5 Reasons Why Van Jones and Progressives are Better Off With Jones Out of the White House (Alternet)
• Jones' Resignation May Embolden Administration Critics: Now that White House green jobs adviser Van Jones has stepped down, Republicans are raising concerns about the administration's reliance on "czars." (FoxNews)
• Color of Change: Stop the race baiting - Call on advertisers to drop sponsorship of Glenn Beck
• As Beck eyes more White House scalps, Olbermann declares war (Raw Story)
• Even more advertisers leave Glenn Beck (Raw Story Blog)
• Truther Document 'Signatories' Say They Were Misled (Little Green Footballs):
  
  [H]ere are a couple of tidbits that tend to back up Jones’ claim that he is not a Truther and signed that infamous document under false pretenses.

  First, Ben Smith contacted two of the other “signatories” of that document, and learned that they had indeed been misled by the Truthers, and thought they were signing a legitimate document calling for further investigations.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report... See below!

• Why not spend $21 billion on solar power from space? (Scientific American)
• Dams, water conservation at issue in water reform (Sacramento Bee)
• NBC explores 'toxic town'; residents paid to pack and leave (Raw Story blog)
• For Effect and Energy, Designers Are Intrigued by OLED Light (NY Times)
• 500,000 Electric Cars Would Take 10% of World Lithium. Only. (Solve Climate.org)
• Big Oil Creates Phony Climate Denial Site, Lies About It (Grist.org)

                 

Article Categories: Green News