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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: UN climate talks in Doha, Qatar end with a whimper; Midwest weather whiplash; Enjoy snow skiing while you still can; PLUS: Sad news for the most famous wolf in Yellowstone National Park … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
12/11/2012
‘Green News Report’ – December 11, 2012 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – December 11, 2012 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Salt Lake Trib: ‘A Killing Climate’; Japanese nuclear plant sitting on active fault line; NOAA sees sea level rise of up to 6.6 feet by 2100; Wheat prices rise on global drought; SPUG’s 1912 campaign against ‘useless gifts’; NYC reconstruction will plan for climate change; CA to easily meet state renewable energy goals; NASA: Wildfires to increase in US; BP emails reveal underreporting of oil spill disaster … PLUS: How Corruption Is Strangling U.S. Innovation … and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Most Famous Wolf in US Shot By Hunter:
- Montana: Wolf Hunts Are Banned in Areas Bordering Yellowstone (NY Times)
- ‘Famous’ Wolf Is Killed Outside Yellowstone (NY Times):
This year’s hunting season in the northern Rockies has been especially controversial because of the high numbers of popular wolves and wolves fitted with research collars that have been killed just outside Yellowstone in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
- Solar Energy: Record US Installations in 2012:
- U.S. Installs Record Amount Of Solar So Far In 2012: Analyst Calls It The Opening Act For Q4 Boom (Climate Progress):
In the second quarter of this year, U.S. solar installations jumped 116 percent over the same period in 2011, partly driven by large installations supported by the very loan guarantee program that Romney claimed was killing solar.
- Midwest Weather Whiplash:
- Very warm November assures 2012 will be warmest year in U.S. history (Dr. Jeff Master’s Weather Underground):
The warm November virtually assures that 2012 will be the warmest year on record in the U.S. The year-to-date period of January – November has been by far the warmest such period on record for the contiguous U.S.–a remarkable 1.0°F above the previous record.
- Dallas beats Chicago for first snow of the season; record snowless streak in Chicago (Dr. Jeff Master’s Weather Underground)
- VIDEO: Storm pummels Upper Midwest, Northern Plains with heavy snow, wind; travelers urged to stay off roads (NBC News)
- Chicago’s long no-snow stretch ties record (Chicago Sun-Times)
- Snow-savvy Midwest cities breaking no-snow records (USA Today)
- Last Chance Tourism: Go Snow Skiing While You Still Can:
- Warming Ski Slopes, Shriveled Revenues (NYT Green):
In recent years, however, the cold cash that used to fall from the sky, giving an economic lift to 38 states, has become less reliable. Winters are getting warmer, less snow is falling, and snow seasons are starting later and ending earlier.
- Global Warming, Winter Sports and Jobs Headed Downhill: Report (NRDC Switchboard)
- REPORT: Climate Impacts on the Winter Tourism Economy in the United States (Natural Resources Defense Council)
- UN COP18: Next Phase of Climate Negotiations in Doha, Qatar:
- UNFCC Main Page: Video and Text (United Nations)
- VIDEO: UN COP18 Webcast Main Page: (United Nations)
- UN News Centre (United Nations)
- UN COP18: Rich Nations Pledge To Do More Next Time at UN Climate Talks:
- Summary: UN climate talks extend Kyoto Protocol, promise compensation (BBC)
- Poor to seek UN climate change compensation scheme in 2013 (Reuters): Compensation scheme would mark fundamental shift. Some climate change effects can’t be adapted to.
- The IPCC Consistently Understates Rate Of Climate Change, Say Scientists (Climate Central):
Across two decades and thousands of pages of reports, the world’s most authoritative voice on climate science has consistently understated the rate and intensity of climate change and the danger those impacts represent, say a growing number of studies on the topic.
- Doha Climate Summit Ends, Marking Start Of A Long March To 2015 (Climate Progress):
After a 48-hour marathon negotiating session, largely held behind closed doors, this year’s UN climate negotiations Qatar ended at approximately 9:45pm Saturday Doha time. Like last year’s Durban climate summit, three distinct negotiating streams produced three overlapping but independent agreements.
- VIDEO: “Incredibly Disappointed”: Civil Groups Decry Weak COP18 Deal amid Deadly Proof of Climate Change (Democracy Now!):
- Rare note of harmony at Doha as action agreed on black carbon (Guardian UK)
- Lord Stern: Developing Countries Must Make Deeper Emissions Cuts (Guardian)
- New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:
- CO2 Emissions Rises Mean Dangerous Climate Change Now Almost Certain (Guardian)
- With Carbon Dioxide Emissions at Record High, Worries on How to Slow Warming (NY Times)
- Arctic sea ice larger than US melts, UN reports; climate change happening ‘before our eyes’ (Washington Post)
- Study: Sea Levels Rising 60% Faster Than Projected, Planet Keeps Warming As Expected (Climate Progress)
- Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
- Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century — way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
- Thawing of permafrost to be ‘major factor’ in global warming, warns UN report (UN News Centre)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- How Corruption Is Strangling U.S. Innovation (Harvard Business Review) [emphasis added:
[T]his isn’t the overt, “bartering of government favors in return for private kickbacks” corruption. Instead, this type of corruption has actually been legalized. And it is strangling both US competitiveness, and the ability for US firms to innovate. The corruption to which I am referring is the phenomenon of money in politics.
- Salt Lake Tribune Editorial: “A Killing Climate: Global Warming Unchecked” (Climate Progress):
The global response to climate change is incapable of addressing the catastrophic consequences to a planet dependent on burning fossil fuels for energy, spewing greater volumes of the greenhouse gases that are boosting temperatures at an accelerating rate.
This gloomy assessment is based on new scientific studies that describe, with increasing certainty, the arrival of severe climate disruption sooner and with greater intensity than scientists had predicted even a few years ago.
- Japanese nuclear plant ‘sitting on active fault line’ (Telegraph UK):
The operator of Japan’s Tsuruga nuclear power plant may be ordered to decommission the facility after seismologists confirmed that it sits directly atop an active fault line.
- NOAA sees sea level rise of up to 6.6 feet by 2100 (USA Today):
As recovery continues from Superstorm Sandy, the U.S. government reports Thursday that flooding from future storms will likely worsen as global sea levels rise between 8 inches and 6.6 feet by the end of this century.
- Wheat Set to Climb as Drought Cuts Global Crop, Australia Says (Bloomberg):
Wheat prices may climb 20 percent in the year through June as drought threatens crops from the U.S. to Russia, boosting global supply concerns
- In 1912, Americans Waged War Against the Giving of Useless Xmas Gifts (Treehugger):
In 1911, faced with a surmounting culture of buying cheap, throwaway presents to give for Christmas, philanthropist August Belmont announced before a crowd of low-paid working woman at an event in New York City the formation of a new club: The Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving.
- Hurricane Sandy: NY Reconstruction Plan to Include Climate Change (UPI)
- California could surpass renewable energy goals, PUC president says (Ventura Co. Star):
California is poised to meet its renewable energy target in the next eight years with a “comfortable margin” to spare as regulators work to promote projects that also help increase “green” jobs in the state.
- NASA: Climate Models Project Increase In U.S. Wildfires, ‘Causing A Further Rise In The Release Of Carbon Dioxide’ (Climate Progress)
- BP emails reveal the company underreported the 2010 Gulf spill (Grist)
- COVER STORY: It’s Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
Yes, yes, it’s unsophisticated to blame any given storm on climate change. Men and women in white lab coats tell us-and they’re right-that many factors contribute to each severe weather episode. Climate deniers exploit scientific complexity to avoid any discussion at all.
…
If all that doesn’t impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
- Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
- Report: Humans near tipping point that could dramatically change Earth (CS Monitor):
Human activity is affecting Earth in many ways, but a new study suggests that continued population growth and its impact on climate and ecology could trigger a more profound chain reaction of effects within little more than a decade.
- VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
- VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
- VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
- Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
- Must-Read: Economist William Nordhaus Slams Global Warming Deniers, Explains Cost of Delay is $4 Trillion (Climate Progress):
Nordhaus’s blunt piece – “Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong” – is worth reading because he is no climate hawk.
…
“The skeptics’ summary is based on poor analysis and on an incorrect reading of the results.” - 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)
- How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming–if implemented globally (Scientific American)
- 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.”- VIDEO: Behold: The World’s First 24/7 Solar Plant is Up and Running (Treehugger)
- 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)
- The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)
- Top UN Climate Official Blasts U.S. Climate Policy: Americans Must Realize “This Is Their Future They’re Compromising” (Think Progress Green)
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Reader Comments on
‘Green News Report’ – December 11, 2012
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The EPA is under scrutiny:
(Poisoning The Well). Time to take off the kid gloves it would seem.