IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: NYPost & Rupert Murdoch get punked!; Global recession --- bad for your wallet, good for the environment; Former Bush Interior Secretary under investigation; Grizzlies get protection --- but Tuna, not so much ... PLUS: The President talks climate at the U.N. ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': A new way to turn plastic into fuel?; Another false conservative attack on clean energy reform; Court: States may sue utilities over climate; Solar power plant on landfill could benefit thousands; No More Sex and Drugs in the Interior Department; Flu Readiness Check Finds Gaps In Care, Coverage ... PLUS: Op-Ed Columnist Says Real Men Tax Gas...

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

• Global Recession Leads to Global Emissions Reduction:
  • Emissions fall in 2008: and not entirely because of the recession (Financial Times)
  • Recession Causes Steep Fall in CO2 Emissions (Live Science)
  • Carbon emissions fall with global downturn: report (AFP)
• Former Bush Administration Cabinet Official Under Investigation:
  • Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton is focus of corruption probe (LA Times): The Justice Department investigation centers on a 2006 decision to award oil shale leases in Colorado to a Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary. Months later, the oil giant hired Norton as a legal counsel
• New York Post and New Yorkers punk'd by The Yes Men:
  • Yes Men pranksters make fake New York Post about real climate emergency (Grist)
  • Climate Week kicks off with warning from hoax New York Post: Politicians, activists, academics and celebrities descend on New York to build momentum for Copenhagen negotiations (Guardian UK)
  • Fake NY Post draws attention to global warming (AP)
  • Activists behind NY Post parody detained by police (AOL Daily Finance)
  • READ IT: "Special Edition" (Fake) New York Post from The Yes Men
  • WATCH: The Yes Men "Special Edition" New York Post on Vimeo:
    
• Grizzly Bears Regain Threatened Species Protection:
  • Fed judge says grizzlies still threatened (AP)
  • Bears get protection (Jackson Hole Daily)
  • Federal Court Rules That Yellowstone Grizzlies Should Be Listed as ‘Threatened' (NY Times)
• EU Nations Fail to Protect Endangered Bluefin Tuna:
  • EU nations fail to ban bluefin tuna fishing despite depleted stocks of famed sushi fish (LA Times)
  • Mediterranean EU countries block bluefin tuna ban: Malta, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal block ban at Brussels meeting despite support from 21 EU governments (Guardian UK)
  • Measures to protect Mediterranean tuna are failing, report warns:
    Confidential papers show how fishing boats in the region routinely fail to follow regulations put in place to protect tuna stocks
• Climate Week 2009: Nations Meet at U.N. to Discuss Climate Change:
  • Society of Environmental Journalists: Climate Week 2009 around the web (SEJ)
  • As U.N. Meets on Climate, Momentum Is Elusive (Dot Earth)
  • UN climate summit puts China, India in spotlight (AP)
  • Europeans Say U.S. Lacks Will on Climate (NY Times)
  • Who’s The Climate-Change Bad Guy? (Wall St. Journal)
  • Obama's authority undercut at UN, G-20 (Politico) [emphasis added]:
    
    “[European Union’s ambassador to the U.S., John] Bruton: “I submit that asking an international Conference to sit around looking out the window for months, while one chamber of the legislature of one country deals with its other business, is simply not a realistic political position.”
  • WATCH: President Obama Address to the United Nations on Climate Change:
    
  • TRANSCRIPT: Remarks by the President at United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's Climate Change Summit, United Nations Headquarters:
    
    The security and stability of each nation and all peoples --- our prosperity, our health, and our safety --- are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out.

    And yet, we can reverse it. John F. Kennedy once observed that "Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man." It is true that for too many years, mankind has been slow to respond or even recognize the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own country, as well. We recognize that. But this is a new day. It is a new era. And I am proud to say that the United States has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our history.

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

• A New Way to Turn Plastic Into Fuel? (Green Inc.)
• CBS’s Declan McCullagh promotes another false CEI attack on clean energy reform (Grist)
• Federal court says states may sue utilities over GHGs.; NY AG Cuomo: “This is a game-changing decision for New York and other states, reaffirming our right to take direct action against global warming pollution from power plants." (Climate Progress)
• Solar power plant on landfill could benefit thousands (Arizona Republic)
• No More Sex and Drugs in the Interior Department (The New Republic)
• Reports Criticize Pandemic Planning: Flu Readiness Check Finds Gaps In Care, Coverage (Washington Post)
• Op-Ed Columnist: Real Men Tax Gas (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  
  When it comes to raising gasoline taxes or carbon taxes — at a perfect time like this when prices are already low — our politicians tell us it is simply “off the table.” So I repeat, who is the real tough guy here?
  ...
  In sum, we would be physically healthier, economically healthier and strategically healthier. And yet, amazingly, even talking about such a tax is “off the table” in Washington. You can’t mention it. But sending your neighbor’s son or daughter to risk their lives in Afghanistan? No problem. Talk away. Pound your chest.

  I am not sure what the right troop number is for Afghanistan; I need to hear more. But I sure know this: There is something wrong when our country is willing to consider spending more lives and treasure in Afghanistan, where winning is highly uncertain, but can’t even talk about a gasoline tax, which is win, win, win, win, win — with no uncertainty at all.

                 

Article Categories: Green News