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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: EXPOSED: Right-wing Heartland Institute's plot to undermine US science education; REVEALED: Climate change deniers recommend super-rich sugar daddies to buy the media; BUSTED: Monsanto convicted of poisoning; FIGHTING BACK: 'Pitchfork Rebellion' in OR; PLUS: Mysterious exploding pig foam --- No, it's not 'santorum', but it's close! ... 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): 166 wolves killed as hunting season ends; State Dept. agreement on short-term climate pollutants; Arctic drilling blowout on Alaska's North Slope; Federal funds flow to clean-energy firms with administration ties; Sierra Club backlash on taking industry cash; Climate change to increased risk of storm surges ... PLUS: Air pollution linked to heart disease: Five deadly air pollutants on five continents ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Climate Change Denier Recommends: Get A Sugar-Daddy to Buy The Media:
• VIDEO: Lord Christopher Monckton speaks at Mannkal Boardroom Seminar (YouTube)
• VIDEO: Monckton, Rinehart and a plan to capture the Australian media with subtitles (Graham Readfern):
  
  Back in the Mannkal boardroom, Monckton told the group that Australia needed to emulate the Fox news model from the United States and should target the “super rich” for some investment.
• Australia reacts to Lord Monckton's call for a 'Fox News' funded by 'super rich' (Guardian UK):
  
  Campaigners warn against mining interests buying up media after Lord Monckton calls for UK and Australia to have a 'Fox News'
• VIDEO: Climate Denial Crock of the Week: Debunking Lord Monckton - Part 1 (YouTube)
• VIDEO: The Smoking Gun: Plot by Fossil Fuel Giant to Further Corrupt Aussie Media Exposed (Huffington Post Green):
  
  An explosive new piece of investigative journalism, "Monckton, Rinehart and a plan to capture the Australian media" by Aussie journalist Graham Readfearn, is turning the climate change world upside down.
  ...
  Famed, if half-crazy, climate change denier "Lord" Christopher Monckton was lecturing the group on how coal mining interests could capture even greater control of the Australian media market to promote their climate change denialist propaganda.
• Monckton Pitches 'Fox News Australia' Idea To Mining Magnate, Seeks 'Super-Rich' Backers (DeSmogBlog)
• Study: 'The Greater the Coverage of Climate Change, the Greater the Public Concern' (Climate Progress):
  
  Exclusive: "Exciting" Public Opinion Study Debunks Claim Al Gore Polarized the Climate Debate and Many Other Myths

  "The greater the quantity of media coverage of climate change, the greater the level of public concern."

• Monsanto Convicted of Poisoning in France:
• US biotech giant guilty of poisoning French farmer: Campaigners call for review of herbicide use in Europe following landmark ruling (Independent UK)
• US firm Monsanto 'guilty' in France poisoning case: A French court has found the US biotech giant Monsanto legally responsible for the poisoning of a farmer who inhaled a powerful weedkiller. (BBC)
• Farmers advance in their suit against Monsanto (Grist):
  
  “We want nothing to do with Monsanto. We don’t want their seed. We don’t want their technology. We don’t want their contamination,” says Jim Gerritsen, an organic farmer from Maine and president of the [Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association].
• Mysterious Exploding Pig Poo Foam:
• Sh*t happens: Mysterious ‘manure foam’ causes pig farms to explode (Grist) [link added]:
  
  Large midwestern hog farms have for the last few years been battling a mysterious foam that is forming on top of their barns. In the worst case scenarios, the foam blocks ventilation ducts and the barns explode — yes, explode — killing the thousands of hogs inside.
  ...
  The cause of the foam is still unknown, although there are indications that the source may be new species of bacteria that have evolved in the barns’ manure pits — in many hog barns the manure is stored underneath the barn before transfer to those notorious manure lagoons. [Researchers have also noticed a correlation between increasing the feeding amount of dried distillers grains (a byproduct of ethanol production, which happens to be loaded with antibiotics) and the foam.]
• Exploding hog barns beckon UMinn researchers (Minnesota Daily)
• VIDEO: Mysterious Foam Causing Hog Farms to Explode (YouTube)
• CAFO conviction: Court holds factory farm accountable for water pollution (Grist)
• Boss Hog: America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history. Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat.[.pdf] [emphasis added]:
  
  A lot of pig shit is one thing; a lot of highly toxic pig shit is another. The excrement of Smithfield hogs is hardly even pig shit: On a continuum of pollutants, it is probably closer to radioactive waste than to organic manure. The reason it is so toxic is Smithfield’s efficiency. The company produces 6 billion pounds of packaged pork each year. That’s a remarkable achievement, a prolificacy unimagined only two decades ago, and the only way to do it is to raise pigs in astonishing, unprecedented concentrations.
• Oregon: The Pitchfork Rebellion:
• Downwind: Big Ag at Your Door (100Reporters.org):
  
  Now, through independent scientific analysis, the Gees and more than 30 of their neighbors have documented two herbicides linked to cancer and birth defects, atrazine and 2,4-D, in their own bodies at alarmingly high levels. And they are demanding answers.
• Climate Denial Industry Bombshell: Heartland Institute Exposed:
• Heartland Documents Reveal Fringe Denial Group Plans to Pursue Koch Money, Dupe Children and Ruin Their Future (Climate Progress)
• Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax (DeSmogBlog)
• Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science (Guardian UK):
  
  Those documents – containing details on future projects such as a $100,000 campaign to "dissuade teachers from teaching science", as well as fundraising efforts – have been confirmed, in part, by Heartland itself, corporate donors such as Microsoft, and climate sceptic blogger Anthony Watts, who hoped to benefit from Heartland fundraising this year.
• INTERNAL DOCUMENTS: The Secret, Corporate-Funded Plan To Teach Children That Climate Change Is A Hoax (Think Progress Green)
• Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine (DeSmogBlog):
  
  “We will also pursue additional support from the Charles G. Koch Foundation. They returned as a Heartland donor in 2011 with a contribution of $200,000. We expect to push up their level of support in 2012 and gain access to their network of philanthropists, if our focus continues to align with their interests. Other contributions will be pursued for this work, especially from corporations whose interests are threatened by climate policies.”
• Heartland Confirms that it Mistakenly Emailed Internal Documents (DeSmogBlog)
• Mashey Report Confirms Heartland's Manipulation; Exposes Singer's Deception (DeSmogBlog)
• In Heartland Institute Leak, a Plan to Discredit Climate Teaching (NY Times)
• GM Defends Contributions To ‘Careful And Considerate’ Climate Denier Institute (Think Progress Green)
• Heartland Institute threatens to sue journalists who covered 'Denial Gate' leak (MongaBay.com)
• The Heartland Files and the Climate Fight (NYT Dot Earth)
• What Happened At Heartland? (Forbes)
• Climate Science Attack Machine Took Donations From Major Corporations (Guardian UK)
• Heartland Institute Responds to Stolen and Fake Documents (Heartland.org):
  
  The stolen documents appear to have been written by Heartland’s president for a board meeting that took place on January 17. He was traveling at the time this story broke yesterday afternoon and still has not had the opportunity to read them all to see if they were altered. Therefore, the authenticity of those documents has not been confirmed.

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

• Wolf season ending in most of Montana; 166 killed (Billings Gazette):
  
  Hunters in Montana had shot more than 160 gray wolves as the season came to a close across most of the state Wednesday — a sharp increase from the last hunt in 2009 but still short of the state's 220-animal quota.

  In portions of the Bitterroot Mountains near the Idaho border, state wildlife commissioners are considering an extension to the season in response to complaints about declining elk numbers.

• Can Sec. Clinton's Agreement on Short-Term Climate Pollutants Help Close the Looming Emissions Gap? (Climate Progress):
  
  A new plan to tackle short-lived pollutants may help bridge the gap between current emission reduction pledges and what is actually needed by 2020 to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2° Celsius.
  ...
  At the State Department this morning, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a six-country initiative designed to reduce pollutants like methane, black carbon (soot), and hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) that help speed up global warming. These pollutants are often called “climate forcers” because they push temperatures up much more quickly than carbon dioxide.
• Arctic Drilling Blowout on Alaska's North Slope (Anchorage Daily News):
  
  NO INJURIES: Drilling mud and gas blasted from diverter; crew on way to regain control
  ...
  Drilling mud and methane gas shot from the well through a diverter pipe, but none of the 76 workers on the rig were injured, no oil was spilled and the gas didn't ignite, the officials said.
• Federal funds flow to clean-energy firms with Obama administration ties (Washington Post):
  
  [S]everal players in venture capital, which was providing financial backing to start-up clean-tech companies...moved into the Energy Department at a time when the agency was seeking outside expertise in the field. At the same time, their industry had a huge stake in decisions about which companies would receive government loans, grants and support.
  ...
  White House officials stress that staffers and advisers with venture capital ties did not make funding decisions related to these companies.
• Sierra Club: Answering for Taking a Driller’s Cash (NY Times):
  
  The recent disclosure of the Sierra Club’s secret acceptance of $26 million in donations from people associated with a natural gas company has revived an uncomfortable debate among environmental groups about corporate donations and transparency.
• EPA Proposal Cuts Water Infrastructure Funds, Increases Air, Water Pollution Grants (Bloomberg)
• Obama Again Proposes More Focused Mine Cleanups (Charleston Gazette)
• Palisades Nuclear Plant Downgraded By NRC Over Safety Concerns (Huffington Post Green)
• Study Links Climate Change To Increased Risk of Storm Surges (Boston Globe):
  
  Studies of climate change and its impact on coastal communities usually focus on rising sea level. Now, scientists from MIT and Princeton University have developed a method to examine how multiple effects of climate change --- including the combination of sea-level rise and stronger hurricanes --- will affect storm surges that wash over sea walls and inundate communities, damaging buildings and infrastructure.
• Debate Intensifies Over Effort To Ban Controversial Chemical Found in Baby Food (Bangor Daily News)
• Hearts and air pollution: Five deadly air pollutants on five continents (Environmental Health News):
  
  Around the world, breathing a variety of air pollutants – in some cases for a single day – increases the chance that people will suffer heart attacks, according to a new analysis published Tuesday. For the first time, scientists analyzed previous studies from five continents to verify and quantify the links between air pollution and heart health. They found that short-term exposure – less than seven days – to all major air pollutants except ozone was associated with an increase in heart attacks.
• Special Report: PEAK EVERYTHING (Bloomberg News) [emphasis added]:
  
  By 2030, The Global Middle Class Is Expected To Grow By Two-Thirds.

  That's 3 Billion More Shoppers. They'll All Want Access To Goods, Including Water, Wheat, Coffee and Oil. Is There Enough for Everybody?

• 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.
  ...
  Groups like Americans for Prosperity have done it."

                 

Article Categories: Oregon, Environment, Minnesota, Republicans, Green News, EPA, Fracking, Koch Industries, Natural gas, Coal