Follow and stream @GreenNewsReport!…
(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)
IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Despite what Rush Limbaugh says, record breaking heat wave breaks heat records; Speaking of climate change deniers, guess what the Norwegian terrorist was?; And speaking of climate change, a new study says it’s causing the release of long-buried toxins; Fukushima, four months later; PLUS: House Republicans attack clean air and clean water — AGAIN … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
7/26/2011
‘Green News Report’ – July 26, 2011 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – July 26, 2011 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
0:00
0:00
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): Appalachian Poverty Concentrated Around Mine Sites; More big Yellowstone fires predicted with climate change; Biting the Bullet, VT Yankee Orders Fuel; Smart Grid Stimulus Creates a Global Player in CO; GA’s coastal infrastructure under threat; ‘Toxic 20’ list released of states with most air pollution; Painting roofs white keeps buildings cool, save $$$; Alarming ‘Dead Zone’ Grows in Chesapeake Bay; Coal Ash Taints Groundwater at TVA Sites; EPA Program on Children’s Toxic Exposure “Flawed”; Natural Gas Drillers Lowball Leases; New Rules Put Pressure On Outdate Power Plants … PLUS: The true cost of gasoline? $13 a gallon …
STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity: Rush Disputes Record Heatwave Breaking Heat Records:
- All 50 States Have Set High Temperature Records This July (Think Progress Green)
- LISTEN: Rush Pushes Conspiracy Theory Involving Climate Change, Liberals, Heat Index, Record-Breaking Heat Wave (Media Matters.org)
- More heat to sizzle central United States (CNN)
- US Pulls Record Energy During Heat Wave (Environmental Leader)
- East Coast heat eases, but there’s more on the way (USA Today)
- The Heat Starts Early, Then Breaks a Record (NY Times):
“One could say, ‘Oh, it’s summer, its late July, it’s hot,’ ” said Christopher Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. “But this is different.”
According to Mr. Vaccaro, this heat wave is exceptional not only for its strength, but also for its breadth and duration. More than 1,400 record-high temperatures have been broken or tied around the country in July alone, Mr. Vaccaro said, and that number was expected to rise on Friday as 132 million people were living under an excessive heat warning or heat advisory.
- More heat to sizzle central United States (CNN)
- LISTEN: Denying Existence Of Record Heat Wave, Limbaugh Suggests The Heat Index Is A Government Conspiracy (Media Matters.org)
- Storm Warnings: Extreme Weather Is a Product of Climate Change: More violent and frequent storms, once merely a prediction of climate models, are now a matter of observation. (Scientific American)
- Extreme weather link ‘can no longer be ignored’: Scientists to end 20-year reluctance with study into global warming and exceptional weather events
- The Norwegian Terrorist Is A Climate Change Denier
- Norway terrorist is a climate change denier (Grist):
Inspired by climate denial pundits, right-wing Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik railed against global warming “enviro-communism” in his manifesto. Breivik — who confessed to killing 76 people in two attacks in Norway — published on the web a 1,500-page manifesto describing his Christian conservative conspiracy theories. In one section, “Green is the new Red — Stop Enviro-Communism!” Breivik argues that global warming is actually an eco-Marxist plot “to create a world government” using the “Anthropogenic Global Warming scam:
…
One of his sources for this delusional claim is right-wing climate conspiracy theorist James Delingpole, who regularly appears on Fox News programs, including Glenn Beck’s now defunct show. The Norwegian terrorist also cited climate conspiracy blogger Steve McIntyre, who appeared in a one-hour Fox News special on global warming in 2009. McIntyre’s conspiracy theories have been promoted by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) [PDF] and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). Dozens of Republican members of Congress have endorsed the Climategate conspiracy theory. - Lawyer for Norway suspect says he’s likely insane (AP)
- Fox News Mocks Security Threat To Small Islands Posed By Climate Change (Media Matters.org)
- Climate Change: Melting Arctic Releasing Long-Buried Toxins:
- Climate Change Forcing Buried Toxics Back Into Atmosphere: Scientists (SolveClimate):
A new study finds that as warming heats up oceans and melts Arctic sea ice, buried POPs are being re-released into the environment.
- Climate Change ‘Remobilizes’ Long-Buried Pollutants as Arctic Ice Melts (ClimateWire)
- House Republicans Attack Clean Air & Clean Water — AGAIN:
- House Dems Take Aim at Policy Rider in Interior, EPA Spending Battle (NY Times):
Democrats on the panel and in the House say the measure is a massive overreach by appropriators who are using legislation intended to fund EPA and Interior in fiscal 2012 as a means of undermining landmark environmental laws.
- House Dems filibuster GOP’s ‘anti-environment’ bill (The Hill):
“This is the most anti-environmental House in history,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). “The new Republican majority seems intent on restoring the robber-baron era where there were no controls on pollution from power plants and oil refineries and factories.”
- “The Worst” Enviro Budget Cuts in 35 Years (Mother Jones)
- Waxman Calls Out Obama For Not Explaining Connection Between Climate Pollution And Extreme Weather (Think Progress Green)
- House Republicans target EPA in environment spending bill (The Hill)
- Moran on HR 2584: “The Most Anti-Environmental Legislation Ever to be Considered by the Congress” (Climate Progress),/li>
- Volleys Fly in House Debate on E.P.A. and Interior (Green/NYT)
- House Republicans Take Aim At Environmental Regulations As Debt Crisis Looms (Huffington Post)
- Dems: ‘Toxic’ environmental spending bill will spread heat, death (The Hill)
- Fukushima Four Months On: Radioactive Cesium Detected In Food Supply:
- Threat to Japanese Food Chain Grows As Cesium Contamination Spreads (Bloomberg):
Radiation fallout from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant poses a growing threat to Japan’s food chain as unsafe levels of cesium found in beef on supermarket shelves were also detected in more vegetables and the ocean.
- Poll: Japanese support PM’s call to do away with nuclear power (Reuters)
- Japan Nuclear Scare Triggers Run For Radiation Checks (Reuters)
- Fukushima cleanup going well, according to UN atomic watchdog (Reuters)
- Japan Links More Cattle to Cesium-Tainted Feed (Wall St. Journal)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Appalachian Poverty Concentrated Around Mine Sites, WVU Study Says (Charleston Gazette):
Poverty in Appalachia is concentrated in the communities around mountaintop removal mines, and people living in those areas suffer greater risk of early deaths, according to a new scientific paper by a West Virginia University researcher.
- More big Yellowstone fires predicted with climate change (LA Times):
The size and frequency of wildfires in the northern Rocky Mountains will increase so much with global warming that it will profoundly alter the landscape of Yellowstone National Park and its environs, predicts a new study [PDF].
…
The large, severe wildfires that have historically occurred infrequently will grow more common as rising temperatures hasten spring snowmelt, lengthening the fire season and drying out the region’s mid-elevation forests. “It’s really by mid-century that it’s going to happen,” said the study’s lead author, UC Merced environmental engineering and geography professor Anthony Westerling. - BP Announces ‘Disappointing’ Profits Of $5.6 Billion (Think Progress Green)
- Biting the Bullet, Vermont Yankee Orders Fuel (NYT Green)
- Obama’s Smart Grid Stimulus Creates a Global Player in Colorado (Reuters):
Since entering the smart grid space in 2009, Colorado-based Tendril has quadrupled its workforce and revenues. Now it’s landing major deals in Australia.
- Georgia’s coastal infrastructure under threat from sea level rise & erosion (Climate Central)
- ‘Toxic 20’ list released – OH, PA, and FL top list for states most affected by power plant air pollution (Christian News)
- Painting roofs white could save a year’s worth of emissions (Grist)
- Alarming ‘Dead Zone’ Grows in Chesapeake Bay (Washington Post):
A giant underwater ‘dead zone’in the Chesapeake Bay is growing at an alarming rate because of unusually high nutrient pollution levels this year, according to Virginia and Maryland officials. They said the expanding area of oxygen-starved water is on track to become the bay’s largest ever.
- Coal Ash Taints Groundwater at TVA Sites: report (Nashville Tennessean):
A new report says groundwater contamination from coal ash has been found at Gallatin and eight of the nine other Tennessee Valley Authority fossil power plant sites where testing is being done.
- EPA Program on Children’s Toxic Exposure “Flawed” (The Investigative Fund):
According to a new report released yesterday, efforts to protect children’s health have been fatally blocked by American industry’s refusal to submit information on the commercial use of chemicals.
- Natural Gas Drilling Lowball Leases (AP):
Thousands of residents living atop the gas-rich Marcellus Shale … signed lowball leases in the years leading up to the boom in Pennsylvania. In those early days a half-decade ago, virtually no layperson had even heard of the rock formation, let alone knew that drillers had found a way to access the huge reservoir of natural gas locked inside it.
- New Rules Put Pressure On Outdated Power Plants (Allentown Morning Call):
Less than half of Pennsylvania’s fossil-fueled power plants have pollution controls, a long-tolerated dirty habit that’s now getting its comeuppance in tougher, new federal regulations.
- The true cost of gasoline? $13 a gallon (Grist)
(Comments are now closed.)