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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Republican Insane Clown Posse rolls into CPAC with Rick Santorum, global conspiracy theorist and the job-killing Newt Gingrich on board; Obama calls again for ending taxpayer oil industry subsidies; PLUS: Okay, now it’s personal: Global Warming impacts chocolate … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
2/14/2012
‘Green News Report’ – February 14, 2012 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... | Valentines & Clowns Edition · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – February 14, 2012 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... | Valentines & Clowns Edition
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Insurance co’s should be selling public on climate change; China’s huge solar deal with Dow; Warming hits microbes’ carbon storage capacity;
Beef prices to rise due to TX drought; Hurricanes could topple wind farms w/o modifications; Amazon’s defenders face death, exile … PLUS: Move over, Evolution: The secret, corporate-funded plot to teach kids climate change is a “hoax”… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- VIDEO: Take A Stand Against Dirty Oil: Bill McKibben on the Keystone XL Petition (Colbert Report):
- OCCUPY KXL:
- OccupyKXL: The 99 Percent Takes A Stand With 24 Hours Against Keystone (Think Progress Green)
- Keystone’s Thousands of Jobs Fall to 20 When Pipeline Opens (Bloomberg News):
“I don’t see a big jobs impact,” Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, said in an interview. “It gets the oil into refineries that already exist. It’s like replacing a bridge on the highway.”
- Senate GOP tries to restore Keystone pipeline (Washington Post)
- Joe Nocera Is Still Wrong and “Very Unfair” About the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline. McKibben, Hansen. Here’s Why. (Climate Progress):
First off, no individual pool of carbon can “bring about global warming apocalypse” by itself. But in combination with the conventional coal, oil, and gas we are burning unconstrained “” a policy Nocera appears to endorse wholeheartedly “” then, yes, the tar sands will be a clear contributor to impacts that deserve the label apocalyptic.
- Obama Calls for Ending Taxpayer Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Boosting Clean Energy in 2013 Budget:
- VIDEO: President Obama Speaks on the 2013 Budget: (WhiteHouse.gov)
- TRANSCRIPT: President Obama Speaks on the 2013 Budget (WhiteHouse.gov) [emphasis added]:
President Obama introduces an initiative to train workers through a partnership between businesses and community colleges, a proposal in his FY 2013 Budget.
By reducing our deficit in the long term, what that allows us to do is to invest in the things that will help grow our economy right now.
…
We need to restore American manufacturing by ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, giving them to companies that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America. (Applause.) That’s something that everybody should agree on.We need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by ending the subsidies for oil companies, and doubling down on clean energy that generates jobs and strengthens our security. (Applause.)
- Obama stresses climate change and clean energy in budget that may be scratch paper for divided Congress (E&E News) [emphasis added]:
The White House released a 2013 budget request yesterday that would increase funding for climate change and clean energy programs at several agencies even as it seeks to rein in overall spending to comply with spending limits set by the Budget Control Act enacted last year.
- U.S. EPA 2013 Budget Cuts Programs, Supports States, Tribes (ENS)
- Obama’s Budget Would Extend Treasury Grants for Wind, Solar (Bloomberg News)
- Obama Seeks To End Oil Industry Tax Breaks – Again (Houston Chronicle)
- Turbulence for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (Science)
- Obama’s Budget Doubles Down on Renewable Energy (The Hill’s E2 Wire)
- DOE FY13 Budget Unveiled ““ National Security (Nuclear) on Top (Scientific American)
- An Agency-By-Agency Guide To Obama’s Budget (AP)
- White House Budget to Expand Clean-Energy Programs Through Pentagon (National Journal)
- Obama Budget Pumps Up Clean Energy, FWIW (EarthTechling) [emphasis added]:
Of course, any detailing of the president’s budget comes with the caveat, “For what it’s worth.” That’s because everyone in Washington understands that with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a determined minority of Republicans in the Senate, whatever spending authorizations ultimately emerge are likely to be the result of election year brinkmanship that sees some programs spared and others jettisoned.
- Obama seeks clean energy, pipeline funds in budget (Reuters)
- Big Oil’s Banner Year: Higher Prices, Record Profits, Less Oil (Climate Progress)
- EPA’s Ominous Request for Funding to Reduce GHGs:
- EPA’s Buried Budget Plea: ‘Reduce GHGs Before It Is Too Late’ (Think Progress)
- EPA: Agency Faces Third Straight Year of Cuts (National Journal)
- Insane Republican Clown Posse Descends on CPAC:
- VIDEO: Newt At CPAC: ‘Eliminate The Environmental Protection Agency’ (Think Progress Green)
- VIDEO: Santorum Froths At CPAC About ‘Facade Of Man-Made Global Warming’ (Think Progress Green)
- Tea Party Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing UN Plot: (NY Times):
Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities.
- Meanwhile: EU Expands Renewable Electricity Generation:
- More than 68% of New European Electricity Capacity Came From Wind and Solar in 2011 (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
wind and solar alone representing almost 70% of new capacity.
- More than 1.1 Million People Employed in EU’s Renewable Energy Sector (Climate Progress)
- Farewell to Chocolate?
- Infographic: Cupid’s Lament: Global Warming Could Melt Valentine’s Day Favorites (Climate Nexus)
- Report: Too Hot for Chocolate? Climate Change Could Decimate the $9 Billion Cocoa Industry, Study Finds (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
A new report out from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture finds that between 2030 and 2050, land area suitable for cocoa production will fall dramatically. While rising temperatures and changing rainfall pattern may shift cocoa production to land currently not suitable, the net impact to this $9 billion-per-year industry could be severe…. [C]limate change is already having an impact on cocoa crops…
- Valentine’s Day destroyed by climate change? (LA Times)
- Valentine’s Day 2012: How the Weather Affects Chocolate and Other Sweet Facts You Didn’t Know (International Business Times) [emphasis added]:
The cacao tree, which is the plant that produces the bean that chocolate is made from, is so weather-sensitive that even small climate shifts can have drastic affects. There is only a narrow range of tropics that support the climate in which cacao trees thrive, and in lower latitudes crop productivity decreases even further. Although new areas can develop the right conditions for chocolate production, individual farms and economies would also have to shift to accommodate the transition, which could take a long time.
- Record Heat Causes Peanut Butter Prices to Skyrocket: “I Don’t Remember A Year” We Had “So Little Moisture” (Climate Progress)
- Special Report: Peak Everything (Bloomberg)
- I Heart Climate Scientists:
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- VIDEO: Insurance Companies Should be Selling the Public on Climate Change (Climate Denial Crock of the Week)
- China’s Yingli to Buy $100 Million in Solar Products From Dupont (Bloomberg News):
DuPont expects its solar photovoltaic market sales to reach $2 billion by 2014 from about $1.4 billion in 2011. Dupont and China-based Suntech Power Holdings Co., the world’s largest solar panel maker, signed a similar agreement on Feb. 1.
- Ocean warming might hit microbes’ carbon storage capacity (Economic Times of India):
Climate change is warming the oceans and preventing water layers from mixing, which could upset the carbon storage capacity of microbes and plankton.
- Experts Say Beef Prices Will Likely Rise for 2 Years Due To Smallest Cattle Herd in 60 Years (AP)
- Chicago Power Station’s Closing Could Create Problems: (Chicago News Cooperative):
The closing of an 83-year-old coal-fired power plant near Chicago, one of the area’s top polluters, will have economic consequences.
- Will Hurricanes Topple US Wind Turbines? (NYT Green):
As plans for wind farms rising out of the ocean along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts inch closer to fruition, a new study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that hurricanes could destroy a significant number of turbines in some of these areas, even coming close to wiping them out.
- Inside the Secret, Corporate-Funded Plan To Teach Children That Climate Change Is A Hoax (Think Progress Green) [emphasis added]:
Internal documents acquired by ThinkProgress Green reveal that the Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank funded by the Koch brothers, Microsoft, and other top corporations, is planning to develop a “global warming curriculum” for elementary schoolchildren that presents climate science as “a major scientific controversy.” This effort, at a cost of $100,000 a year, will be developed by Dr. David E. Wojick, a coal-industry consultant.
- EPA Probing Washington Co., PA Shale Operations: (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette):
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether specific Marcellus Shale drilling and compressor station operations in Washington County have caused environmental damage that violates federal regulations.
- With Tips from Whistle-Blowers, More Hands on Deck in Maritime Pollution Cases (NY Times):
Seafaring whistle-blowers, frequently seeking a financial bounty, have become one of prosecutors’ most potent weapons against maritime polluters, providing the backbone for a growing number of cases the federal government has pursued in Baltimore and other port cities across the country.
- Amazon Defenders Face Death Or Exile: (Guardian UK):
Brazilian activists who inform on illegal loggers laying waste to the rainforests can expect a visit from the gunmen.
- MA: Deadly Virus Hits Turtles, Tadpoles in Montgomery Co.: (Washington Post):
Maryland biologists studying box turtles rescued from the bulldozers on the Intercounty Connector construction site have made a grisly find: An alarming number of the tiny turtles later died, and biologists say their demise appears to be unrelated to the highway.
- Unplanned 9/11 Analysis Links Noise, Whale Stress (AP):
Unplanned experiment on oceans in post-9/11 silence links noise and whale stress
An ocean experiment that was accidentally conducted amid the shipping silence after Sept. 11 has shown the first link between underwater noise and stress in whales, researchers reported Wednesday.
- NYT: A Terrible Transportation Bill (Op-ed, New York Times):
The list of outrages coming out of the House is long, but the way the Republicans are trying to hijack the $260 billion transportation bill defies belief. This bill is so uniquely terrible that it might not command a majority when it comes to a floor vote, possibly next week, despite Speaker John Boehner’s imprimatur. But betting on rationality with this crew is always a long shot. Here is a brief and by no means exhaustive list of the bill’s many defects….
- Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
- VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
- VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
- Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
It’s simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. “Hitler is on the march and our survival is at stake” footing. That simply won’t be possible unless a critical mass of people are on board. It’s not the kind of thing you can sneak in incrementally.
It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don’t want to hear it.
- Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
- Climate Scientists Rebuke Rupert Murdoch: WSJ Denier Op-Ed Like ‘Dentists Practicing Cardiology’ (Think Progress Green)
- Saudi Oil Minister Calls Global Warming “Humanity’s Most Pressing Concern” (Climate Progress):
“We know that pumping oil out of the ground does not create many jobs. It does not foster an entrepreneurial spirit, nor does it sharpen critical faculties.”- World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be “lost for ever”, according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure.
…
“The door is closing,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. “I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever.”- Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
- READ the IPCC Report: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
- The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)
- No, global warming hasn’t stopped (New Scientist)
- Top UN Climate Official Blasts U.S. Climate Policy: Americans Must Realize “This Is Their Future They’re Compromising” (Think Progress Green)
- VIDEO: Climate Scientists Michael Mann on “A Look Into Our Climate: Past To Present To Future” (TEDx, YouTube)
- Earth’s Plant Growth Fell Because of Climate Change, Study Finds (NYT Green)
- Heads in the Sand: Warning: “Climate change is occurring “¦ and poses significant risks to humans and the environment,” reports the National Academy of Sciences. As climate-change science moves in one direction, Republicans in Congress are moving in another. Why?
(National Journal) [emphasis added]:Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, says there’s no question that the influence of his group and others like it has been instrumental in the rise of Republican candidates who question or deny climate science. “If you look at where the situation was three years ago and where it is today, there’s been a dramatic turnaround. Most of these candidates have figured out that the science has become political,” he said.
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Groups like Americans for Prosperity have done it.“
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