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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The latest commie pinko hoaxster enemy of Fox 'News' is... Spongebob Squarepants!; Radioactive fish in VT; Salmonella turkey burgers everywhere else; Wolves under the gun in Wyoming; PLUS: The high cost of doing nothing about climate change ... 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' (see links below): Somalia famine spreads in E. Africa; Tropical Storm Emily hits vulnerable Haiti; Polar bear scientist under investigation; Russia: faster ice melt opens Arctic trade routes; Gulf ‘Dead Zone’ expanding to new areas; Calculate climate change health effects in your state; Water well tainted by fracking; Japan fires top nuclear officials; Japan to lift evacuation order around damaged nuclear plant; Pockets of high radiation detected near Fukushima plant; Conoco-Phillips says massive China oil spill worse than thought; New superbug strain of salmonella; Sanders: NRC must act on Fukushima report; Beware These Household Energy-Saving Myths ... PLUS: Positively Orwellian: At Koch's ALEC Conference, 'The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment'...

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

• Fox News' Latest Commie-Pinko-Hoaxster-Enemy is: Spongebob Squarepants!:
• VIDEO: SpongeBob SquarePants Makes An Enemy (MediaMatters.org):
  
  Fox News repeatedly criticized a SpongeBob SquarePants book and video about manmade global warming because "they did not tell kids that that is actually a disputed fact." In reality, it is not controversial among the mainstream scientific community that humans are changing the climate.
• Fox And Friends: Spongebob Squarepants Is ‘Pushing A Global Warming Agenda’ (Think Progress Green) [emphasis added]:
  
  The only sides in the climate science “debate” are the side offering the facts and the side intent on ignoring them. As scientists and nature continually prove, human activity is directly linked to climate change and it will certainly require a change in energy policy to address it. Still, while it is somewhat disconcerting to know a cartoon children’s book — or a kid show host — is more familiar with fact than Fox News hosts, it is not entirely surprising.
• Conservative, white men more likely to be climate change sceptics, study shows (Guardian UK):
  
  The demographic was more than twice as likely than other adults to say the media exaggerated seriousness of climate change.
• Radioactive Fish Found in VT Near Nuclear Plant:
• Vermont finds contaminated fish as nuclear debate rages (Reuters):
  
  Vermont health regulators said on Tuesday they found a fish containing radioactive material in the Connecticut River near Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant which could be another setback for Entergy to keep it running. The state said it needs to do more testing to determine the source of the Strontium-90, which can cause bone cancer and leukemia.

  Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin wants the 620 megawatts reactor shut in March 2012 when its original operating license was to expire.

  Entergy filed a complaint in federal court to block the state from shutting the reactor next year.

• Vermont Finds Contaminated Fish; Governor Blames Entergy (Wall St. Journal)
• Investigation into Tritium Contamination at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VT Dept. of Health) [emphasis added]:
  
  One finding of Sr-90 just above the lower limit of detection in one fish sample is notable because it is the first time Sr-90 has been detected in the edible portion of any of our fish samples. While the scientific literature includes evidence that edible portions of fish can retain Sr-90, this finding in the Connecticut River requires more sample data so we can better understand what it means.
• Mmmm...Salmonella Turkey Burgers:
• Cargill recalling 36M pounds of ground turkey (AP):
  
  Meat giant Cargill is recalling 36 million pounds of ground turkey linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has killed one person in California and sickened at least 76 others.

  Illnesses in the outbreak date back to March and have been reported in 26 states coast to coast.

• Cargill Recalls Ground Turkey Linked to Outbreak (NY Times)
• House Continues Assault on Key Health & Environmental Protections: Riders on an EPA spending bill will sacrifice thousands of lives, billions of dollars in savings (Earth Justice)
• Obama, Democrats Poised to Embrace Deal that May Slash Energy, Enviro Spending for Many, Many Years (Climate Progress)
• Wolves Under the Gun in Wyoming, But Wild Mustangs Safe --- For Now:
• U.S., Wyoming Agree to Allow Hunters to Kill Wolves (AP):
  
  Wyoming and the U.S. Department of Interior have reached an agreement that would end federal protection for wolves in the state and allow hunters to kill more than 50% of those living outside Yellowstone National Park.
• Wyoming, Feds Reach Wolf Deal (Casper Star-Tribune)
• Wolf Compromise Only the First Step (Casper Star-Tribune)
• Government Agrees to Wolf Plan (Jackson Hole News)
• Feds, Governor Agree Wyoming Wolves Should Be Delisted (Wyoming Tribune Eagle)
• Wild Mustangs Spared Roundup in WY --- For Now (Reuters):
  
  Wild horses on the vast rangelands of Wyoming can continue to roam free, for now, after the U.S. government's Bureau of Land Management postponed a planned roundup, horse advocates said on Tuesday.
• The High Cost of Doing Nothing About Climate Change
• VIDEO: Wuebles: The Future Of Climate Depends On Urgent Action (YouTube)
• As Obama Lifts Meaningless ‘Cloud Of Uncertainty,’ Durbin Fights The Storms Of Climate Change (Think Progress Green)
• Gee, Why Are Climate Scientists So Perturbed? (NYT Green):
  
  A recent report from the ClimateWorks Foundation in San Francisco does the best job I have seen of explaining, in layman’s terms, why scientists keep pressing the issue. In essence, society has put off the task of reducing carbon dioxide and other emissions for so long that it is on the verge of running out of time, the report argues. The document, written by Hal Harvey and Sonia Aggarwal, calculates that stabilizing the gases at a level low enough to avert severe damage to the planet will require that emissions peak by 2020 and then begin falling briskly — and no set of policies in place today is likely to cause that to happen.
• Not looking good: Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980 (Grist)
• Climate Change an Extra Burden for Native Americans, Study Says (NYT Green)
• Record Warm Nighttime Temperatures: A Closer Look (Climate Central)
CBO: Clean Energy Standards Are an Affordable Way to Cut Carbon Emissions (Climate Progress)
• Durban Talks Unlikely to Strike Climate Deal: U.N. (Reuters):
  
  Major climate talks in South Africa at year-end will be unlikely to strike agreement on a new pact, but will be important in determining the shape of long-term efforts to tackle climate change, a senior U.N. climate official said on Tuesday.
• Himalaya Glaciers Shrinking On Global Warming, Some May Disappear (Reuters)
• Severe US drought sets another record; Costs soar past $1.5 billion Details (WaPo Capitol Weather Gang)
• The New Normal: Billion-Dollar Disasters (Mother Jones)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

• Somalia famine grows, 12.5 million at risk: UN calls for urgent food but aid is slow to come and rebels threaten deliveries (Global Post):
  
  “While this is a tragedy triggered by the worst drought in 60 years, it is largely about our collective failure to end the Somali civil war," said Donald Kaberuka during a visit to Washington Monday.

  Judging by historic data from the last famine in the early 1990s experts have predicted that 2,500 lives a day will soon be lost in Somalia. Aid workers fear that outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles or pneumonia could up the toll among an already weakened population.

• Tropical Storm Emily Takes Aim at Vulnerable Haiti (Reuters):
  
  Tropical Storm Emily took aim at Haiti on Wednesday, threatening to add to the misery of a chronically poor nation struggling to recover from last year's devastating earthquake.
• Star Polar Bear Scientist in the Dog House (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones):
  
  The government mysteriously puts a lead Arctic biologist on administrative leave. Is it caving to oil interests? [sure looks like it - ed.]
  ...
  At no point in the course of the interview, which lasted for two hours, did the agents state exactly what they were investigating. At one point, Jeff Ruch, the executive director of PEER (as well as an attorney and an observer of the investigation), asked about the allegations. May responded, "Well, the scientif--well, scientific misconduct, basically, uh, wrong numbers, uh, miscalculations, uh-."
• Russia Says High Ice Melt Opens Arctic Trade Routes (Reuters)
• Gulf ‘Dead Zone’ Expanding to New Areas as Increased Flooding Makes the Problem Worse (Climate Progress)
• NRDC Details Climate Change Health Effects (Riverside Press-Enterprise)
  
  The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, unveiled an online tool allowing users to look up the potential health effects of climate change by zip code.
• Fracking: A Tainted Water Well, and Concern There May Be More (NYT Green):
  
  Oil and gas executives have long claimed that there is no case in which hydraulic fracturing has contaminated a drinking water aquifer.

  But such a case exists. And one of the biggest bars to enumerating suspected additional cases is the oil and gas industry's refusal to allow disclosure of them --- a condition of court settlements with landowners.

• Japan to Sack Top Nuclear Energy Officials (AFP):
  
  Japan will sack three top energy officials over their handling of the Fukushima atomic disaster and scandals that have fuelled public mistrust in the country's nuclear policy, the government said Thursday.
• Japan to Lift Evacuation Order Around Damaged Nuclear Plant (Environmental News Service)
• Pockets Of High Radiation Remind Of Fukushima Plant Danger (Reuters)
• US oil giant Conoco-Phillips says massive China oil spill worse than thought (AFP):
  
  The spill, which has polluted a sea area measuring 1,200 square kilometres, (460 square miles) according to the latest SOA figures, was kept secret by authorities for several weeks before being made public last month.
• Scientists find new superbug strain of salmonella (Reuters):
  
  Scientists have identified an emerging "superbug" strain of salmonella that is highly resistant to the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, or Cipro, often used for severe salmonella infections, and say they fear it may spread around the world.

  The strain, known as S. Kentucky, has spread internationally with almost 500 cases found in France, Denmark, England and Wales in the period between 2002 and 2008, according a study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders: NRC Must Act on Fukushima Report (RSN):
  
  "Delay is not an acceptable option," Sanders said at an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing in Washington. "We must do everything in our power to make sure nuclear power plants are safe and that this country never experiences what happened in Japan."

  Sanders spoke at a hearing called to look into NRC foot dragging on the recommendations. "I applaud the recommendations made by the task force, but I am disturbed that a majority of the NRC does not want to move forward on all 12 recommendations within three months," Sanders told the commissioners.

• Beware These Household Energy-Saving Myths (The Consumerist)
• George Orwell would be proud: At Koch's ALEC Conference: 'The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment (Think Progress Green)

                 

Article Categories: Fox 'News', Mainstream Media Failure, Accountability, Environment, U.S. Senate, Republicans, Green News, EPA, Japan