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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Scientists warn of abrupt climate change; Prominent scientists call for a carbon tax… while Big Oil is secretly planning for it; FDA moves to ban some antibiotics in factory farming; PLUS: After moving to claim the North Pole as their own, Canada promises to protect Santa from the Russians … All those new fronts in the War on Christmas in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
12/12/2013
‘Green News Report’ – December 12, 2013 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – December 12, 2013 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Can We Avert the End of Elephants?; Competitive hunting of wolves, coyotes in Idaho sparks outcry; We can get 100% of our aluminum from recycling using only 5% of the energy; US fracking boom destroying homes’ real estate value; Extreme weather worries insurers, farmers; Arctic Warming Drives More Extreme Summer Heat Waves, Droughts And Deluges; Japan to store radioactive Fukushima soil; Chinese media touts the ‘benefits’ of extreme pollution, while government trains airline pilots to land in extreme smog; EPA to cut back on inspections … PLUS: Iraq and Climate Change are both case studies in the failure of journalism … and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- FDA Moves to Ban Some Antibiotics in Factory Farming:
- Drug Firms Accept FDA Plan to Phase Out Some Animal Antibiotic Uses (NPR)
If drug companies follow guidance issued Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, within three years it will be illegal to use medically important antibiotics to make farm animals grow faster or use feed more efficiently>
- New U.S. FDA Rules Aim To Cut Antibiotic Use in Farm Animals (Reuters)
- F.D.A. Restricts Antibiotics Use for Livestock (NY Times)
- Scientists Warn of ABRUPT Climate Change, Call For Early Warning System:
- READ the report: Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises (National Academies of Science) [emphasis added]:
Abrupt change is already underway in some systems, and large scientific uncertainties about the likelihood of other abrupt changes highlight the need for further research.
- What surprises could climate change have in store for us?: Scientists on likelihood of abrupt climate shifts: (Washington Post)
- Ready — Or Not. Abrupt Climate Changes Worry Scientists Most (NPR):
“We have only a handful of sites to look at that,” White said. “And since 2007, [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s] monitoring network — the primary global measuring network — has been cut by 30 percent.”
- US National Research Council wants abrupt climate change warning system (Ars Technica): Tipping points are out there, and we’d like to know when we’re approaching one.
- Report Warns of Sudden Climate Change Impacts (National Geographic)
- VIDEO: Making the Plio Scene — What the Past tells us about Sea Level (Climate Crocks)
- Dr. James Hansen Calls for Carbon Tax To Fight ‘Irreversible’ Climate Change:
- VIDEO: Watch Dr. James Hansen’s Keynote Speech. Sign up FREE here
- Q&A with James Hansen (PLOSOne) [emphasis added]:
Hansen is the lead author on a paper published today by PLOS ONE, “Assessing Dangerous Climate Change: Required Reductions of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature” (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081648). The study makes unsettling arguments about the need to keep the maximum amount of warming below 2 °C. and about how rapidly fossil fuel use must decrease to prevent disastrous warming. More about the study can be read here and here.
- VIDEO: Jim Hansen Presses the Climate Case for Nuclear Energy (NYT Dot Earth)
- Big Oil Quietly Planning For Carbon Tax:
- Large Companies Prepared to Pay Price on Carbon (NY Times):
More than two dozen of the nation’s biggest corporations, including the five major oil companies, are planning their future growth on the expectation that the government will force them to pay a price for carbon pollution as a way to control global warming.
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A new report by the environmental data company CDP has found that at least 29 companies, some with close ties to Republicans, including ExxonMobil, Walmart and American Electric Power, are incorporating a price on carbon into their long-term financial plans. - “A Rational Perspective”: Corporations Prepare for Carbon Limits (Cliamte Crocks)
- Companies and Conservatives Prepare for Oncoming Carbon Taxes (American Conservative)
- Editorial: The new reality on carbon emissions (Dallas Morning News)
- After Claiming North Pole, Canada Will Protect Santa From The Russians:
- Canada vows to protect Santa Claus from Russian troops in the Arctic (UK Telegraph):
Canada has vowed to defend the North Pole and Santa Claus, insisting the mythical figure is a citizen, after Russia ordered its military to step up its Arctic presence.
- Fight heats up over future control of the North Pole (E & E News)
- VIDEO: Arctic race: Why Harper wants to call dibs on the North Pole (CTV News)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Case Studies in the Failure of Journalism: Iraq, and Climate Change (Climate Crocks):
[An] ironic similarity is that the same newspapers and the same journalists who beat the war drums a decade ago are now also frequently misrepresenting the risk the world is facing from climate change. After WMDs failed to materialize in post-invasion Iraq, this led to occasional anguish among journalists who regretted that they used “‘evidence’ now known to be bogus” to push for war. The lethal fallout from misinformation a decade ago primarily affected the people of Iraq. The fallout from misinformation about climate change is likely to affect us all.
- Can We Avert the End of Elephants? (Scientific American):
Within the next 10 years, Africa could lose 100,000 elephants to poachers—a fifth of the population—if the slaughter for their ivory tusks continues at current rates, according to a new analysis.
- Competitive hunting of wolves, coyotes in Idaho sparks outcry (Reuters):
The first statewide competition in decades to hunt wolves and coyotes in Idaho has sparked outrage among wildlife conservationists, who condemned it as “an organized killing contest.”
- Someday we might get 100% of our aluminum from recycling (using only 5% of the energy) (Treehugger)
- U.S. fracking boom leaves some homeowners in a big hole (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
“My beautiful house was all of a sudden on an industrial site,” Fowler says. “We wanted to get as far away from fracking as we could.” Last year, their house sold for $225,000 – about half its appraised value.
- Extreme weather worries insurers, farmers (USA Today):
State Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart told participants that global insurance losses due to extreme weather have averaged $70 billion a year since 2010, an increase of 75 percent from 2000 to 2009 and 367 percent from 1980 to 1989. “Some insurance carriers have unequivocally said it’s from climate change,” Gerhart said.
- Arctic Warming Drives More Extreme Summer Heat Waves, Droughts And Deluges, Study Finds (Climate Progress):
Scientists predicted a decade ago that Arctic ice loss would shift storm tracks and bring on worse western droughts of the kind we are now seeing.
- Georgia’s new coast, courtesy of climate change: Now’s the time to start planning how to adapt to sea level rise (Creative Atlanta)
- Japan to spend $970mn on storing radioactive Fukushima soil (RT):
Tokyo is looking to invest 100 billion yen ($970 million) for storing more than 130,000 tons of contaminated soil dug out near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, according to local media. No nearby town has offered its land for the plan, though.
- China to make pilots learn how to land in Beijing smog in effort to reduce flight delays (CBS News):
Chinese aviation authorities will soon require captains of domestic flights into Beijing to master low-visibility landings to combat chronic flight delays that have been worsened by heavy smog.
- Chinese media find silver linings in smog clouds (Guardian UK):
Haze has unified people, made them funnier as smog jokes proliferate, and could bolster military defences, say state media
- Unease among Brazil’s farmers as Congress votes on GM terminator seeds (Guardian UK)
Environmentalists warn approval could shatter global agreement not to use technology, with devastating repercussions
- EPA plans to sharply reduce inspections (LA Times):
Saying it wants to focus on the biggest polluters, the EPA proposes to cut federal inspections by one-third and reduce civil enforcement cases 23%. Environmental groups are alarmed.
- For Environmental Concerns, The Ryan-Murray Budget Deal Is A Mixed Bag (Climate Progress)
- NASA Reveals New Results From Inside the Ozone Hole (NASA)
- Meat the press: What Rolling Stone’s scary farm exposé gets right — and wrong (Grist)
- No Deniers in the Foxholes: Insurance Industry Copes with Climate Reality (Peter Sinclair’s Climate Crocks)
- Just in Time for Black Friday: NRDC’s Green Electronics Holiday Shopping Guide 2013 (NRDC)
- Living Green’s Green Gadget Gift Guide (Living Green)
- AUDIO: KPFK ‘BradCast’: Dr. Michael Mann, the ‘Hockey Stick Graph’ and His Report from the Front Lines (and Very Center) of the Climate Wars (The BRAD BLOG)
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
Great job.
Thanks again.
How come you leave “Ed Schultz” out
if the promo ?
Kingfish – what are you talking about?