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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Water wars in the U.S.; Bad year for butterflies; ExxonMobil fined (barely) for Yellowstone River pipeline spill; Russia stockpiles snow for the 2014 Winter Olympics; PLUS: Apple computers goes renewable … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 3/26/2013

‘Green News Report’ – March 26, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – March 26, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): World’s Most Powerful Private Supercomputer Won’t Cure Cancer, But Will Find Oil Super Fast; Ocean warming has accelerated in past 15 years; Scientists work to create fuel from CO2; Scientists link frozen spring to dramatic Arctic sea ice loss; Fracking companies win WY disclosure suit; IG: DOE mismanaged stimulus-backed climate program; Peru declares environmental state of emergency; Canada must leave tar sands in the ground: study … PLUS: Trump trumped: Scottish government approves windfarm opposed by Donald Trump … and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• Limbaugh Lies: Scientists Who Accept Global Warming Consensus Are “Political Advocates” Spreading “Misinformation” (Media Matters)
• Water Wars in the US: Georgia Annexes Tennessee?!?:
• Georgia Senate Passes Measure To Move State Line, Claim Tennessee Water (TPM)
• Senate Adds Threat to Tennessee River Bill (Atlanta Journal-Constitution):
  The state Senate added a threat Monday to a measure trying to settle Georgia’s dispute over its boundary with Tennessee: It would take the Volunteer State to court if it did not agree to give Georgia a sliver of land on the Tennessee River… Georgia’s disputed claim to the river dates to 1818.
• Georgia Senate passes resolution to move state line, claim Tennessee River water (Times Free-Press)
• High court grants Georgia water-wars victory (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/25/2012)
• Bad News for Butterflies:
• Monarch Butterflies Hit New Low; “Worrisome” Trend: The insects found in only about three acres of habitat, report says. (National Geographic)
• VIDEO: Flight of the Butterflies PSA (Monarch Watch, Univ. of Kansas)
• Butterflies suffer devastating year after UK’s record wet summer: Scientists say it is possible that there have never been fewer butterflies in Britain since it was first inhabited by humans (Guardian UK)
• ExxonMobil Fined $1.7m for Yellowstone River Spill:
• Yellowstone Oil Spill: Regulators Propose Penalty For Exxon Pipeline Rupture In Montana River (Huffington Post Green):
  U.S. Department of Transportation regulators alleged a chain of bad decisions by Exxon leading up to the spill and in its immediate aftermath. That included Exxon employees’ failure to close an upstream safety valve, which could have significantly reduced the size of the spill after it was first detected. As a result, the agency said, oil continued gushing into the flooding river for almost an hour after the break was noticed by pipeline controllers in Houston. The agency also faulted the company for not addressing flood risks and not taking adequate measures to prevent a spill.
• Canada: Ontario municipalities raise oil spill concerns on Enbridge pipeline reversal (Ottawa Citzen):
• Good News: Apple Computers Achieve 75% Renewable Energy Worldwide:
  • Apple Says Data Centers Now Use 100% Renewable Energy (Bloomberg News):
    The company’s data centers now run on energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal, instead of coal or other fossil fuels, Apple said on its website. The centers house server computers that store and distribute songs, applications and other content from services such as iTunes, iMessage and iCloud.
  • Apple Adapts Quickly to a Coal-Free Future (Triple Pundit)
  • Apple defends green credentials of cloud computing services: Greenpeace report named Apple among worst offenders for using highly polluting coal to power their data centres (Guardian UK, 4/17/2012)

• Sochi Stockpiles Snow for Winter Olympics:
• Sochi Organizers Are Stockpiling Snow, Just in Case (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  Up to half of the saved snow may melt by next winter, but the site managers said they could conduct the Olympics even in the unlikely event that no natural snow falls next winter. The stockpiled snow can be shoved down the mountain with Sno-Cats or guided onto steep slides — pipes, a meter in diameter, cut in half — aimed at where the snow is most needed.

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• World’s Most Powerful Private Supercomputer Won’t Cure Cancer, But Will Find Oil Super Fast (Climate Progress)
• Scotland v. Trump: Scottish government approves windfarm opposed by Donald Trump: Billionaire property magnate attacks decision to build experimental offshore windfarm near his golf course as ‘purely political’ (Guardian UK)
• In Hot Water: Global Warming Has Accelerated In Past 15 Years, New Study Of Oceans Confirms (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  Completely contrary to the popular contrarian myth, global warming has accelerated, with more overall global warming in the past 15 years than the prior 15 years. This is because about 90% of overall global warming goes into heating the oceans, and the oceans have been warming dramatically. As suspected, much of the ‘missing heat’ Kevin Trenberth previously talked about has been found in the deep oceans.
• Discovery May Allow Scientists to Make Fuel from Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere (Science Daily):
  “Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants do-absorb it and generate something useful,” said Michael Adams, member of UGA’s Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
• Scientists link frozen spring to dramatic Arctic sea ice loss: Melting sea ice, exposing huge parts of the ocean to the atmosphere, explains extreme weather both hot and cold (Guardian UK)
• A thousand soldiers sent to protect elephants after marauding elephant poachers [warning: graphic photos] (Monga Bay)
• Judge Sides with Wyoming in Fracking Chemical Suit (TIME Eco-centric blog):
  A judge in Casper has sided with the state of Wyoming and ruled against environmentalists who sought to make public the lists of ingredients that go into hydraulic fracturing fluids.
• President Obama Designates Five New National Monuments (White House.gov)
• Analysis: Obama’s climate agenda may face setbacks in federal court (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
  President Barack Obama’s plan to use federal agencies, and the Environmental Protection Agency in particular, to drive his second-term climate change agenda might be in peril if he cannot fill vacant seats on the federal court that has jurisdiction over major national regulations, legal experts say.
• DOE IG Report: Energy Dept. mismanaged stimulus-backed climate program (The Hill’s e2 Wire):
  The audit notes three project recipients together received $90 million even though reviews of the proposals “identified significant financial and/or technical issues.”
• Peru declares environmental state of emergency in its rainforest: Peru’s government reports high levels of barium, lead, chrome and petroleum-related compounds in region that is home to oil field (Guardian UK)
• Chris Christie Has ‘No Sympathy’ For Beach Dune Opposition In Wake Of Superstorm Sandy (Huffington Post Green) [emphasis added]:
  “I’m not going to put up with people who say their view of the Atlantic Ocean is more important than the lives and the property of their neighbors,” the governor told residents of Middlesex, N.J., according to The Star-Ledger.
• Green groups, billionaire threaten primaries against pro-Keystone Dems (The Hill’s e2 Wire)
• Canada: Fossil fuel divestment necessary in order to avoid “carbon bubble”: study (Canada Newswire) [emphasis added]:
  Canada’s economy is experiencing a “carbon bubble” that could have significant consequences for Canada’s financial markets and pension funds, according to a new study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives…. Between 2/3rds and 4/5ths of known fossil fuel reserves have been deemed to be “unburnable carbon” that cannot safely be combusted without leading to catastrophic climate change.
• Texas Retailer Says “No” to Genetically Engineered Salmon (Prevention Magazine)
• Guatemalan Mayan Community Seeks International Help for Protection (Indian Country Today):
  The Maya Q’eqchi Agua Caliente community of Guatemala, some of whose members have been killed, threatened and tortured while trying to defend their territory from a mining company, sent a delegation to Washington D.C. in early March looking for allies and further protections in their ongoing struggle.
• Cities Weigh Taking Over From Private Utilities (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
  Roughly 70 percent of the nation’s homes are powered through private, investor-owned utilities, which are allowed to earn a set profit on their investments, normally through the rates they charge customers.
  …
  According to data from the federal Energy Information Administration, municipal utilities over all offer cheaper residential electricity than private ones — not including electric cooperatives, federal utilities or power marketers — a difference that holds true in 32 of the 48 states where both exist.
• How to cut U.S. gasoline use in half by 2030 (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  [I]f the United States ever plans to deal seriously with climate change, the transportation sector will have to change drastically. And the National Academy of Sciences report concludes that no one single policy or technology will do the trick.
• NOAA: ‘Robust, Unambiguous’ Independent Evidence Confirms The Recent Global Warming Measured By Thermometers: Yes, The Modern Instruments Are Right. Just Ask The Coral. Or The Caves. Or The Ice Cores. Or The…. (Climate Progress)

• COVER STORY: It’s Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  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.
• 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.

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• 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)
• 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. …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)
• 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 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)