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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Green News Report special coverage: Buckle up – landmark US report from 13 federal agencies warns climate change is here and now, and a clear and present danger… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 5/6/2014

‘Green News Report’ – May 6, 2014  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...  |  Special Coverage: U.S. National Climate Assessment   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – May 6, 2014  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...  |  Special Coverage: U.S. National Climate Assessment

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Stanford Univ. to divest from coal; Fracking earthquakes not OK in OK; Drought-stricken town turns to toilets for water; WA: fierce local opposition to oil trains; Organic farmers fight over allowable synthetic substances; Indiana has the most toxic coal ash waste ponds in US… PLUS: Uh oh: East Antarctic ice sheet more vulnerable to collapse than previously thought … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Landmark U.S. National Climate Assessment: Climate Change Is A Clear And Present Danger:
• The National Climate Assessment 2014: Interactive Website (GlobalChange.gov):
  EXPLORE THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
  The National Climate Assessment summarizes the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. A team of more than 300 experts guided by a 60-member Federal Advisory Committee produced the report, which was extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences.
• REGIONAL Impacts of Climate Change: (GlobalChange.gov):
  Evidence of climate change appears in every region and impacts are visible in every state. Explore how climate is already affecting and will continue to affect your region.
• VIDEO: Regional Impacts on the Front Lines of Climate Change, National Climate Assessment: (GlobalChange.gov via Vimeo.com):
  In these videos, scientists and citizens from around the country personify the scientific information detailed in the report.
• VIDEO: EPA Chief Gina McCarthy: Climate change report gives dire warning (MSNBC): A new government report says that the average US temperature has risen 1.3 degrees since record keeping began — and 80 percent of that rise happened since 1980.
• National Climate Assessment: 15 arresting images of climate change now and in the pipeline (Washington Post)
• Analysis & Coverage of US National Climate Assessment 2014:
• Live Blogging the Report’s Releas: Climate change: what are the worst impacts facing America? (Guardian UK)
• Climate change is clear and present danger, says landmark US report (Guardian UK)
• Landmark Report Warns Time Is Running Out To Save U.S. From Climate Catastrophe (Climate Progress),/li>
• Climate Change Is Hitting Where You Live Today: In the U.S., Climate Change Is Here and Now and the Future (Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy, Slate):
  The report is incredibly thorough, going through each line of reasoning, each thread of evidence, step by step. But I would say that the part of this report that is of most individual interest—that is, what you personally will want to check out—is the section on regional impact of climate change. Here, you can see how global warming will impact where you live.
• VIDEO: Climate Change Is Real And It’s Making Your Life Worse Right Now (Buzzfeed):
  “The contents confirm climate change is not a distant threat. It is affecting the American people already…On the whole, summers are longer and hotter, with longer periods of extended heat. Wildfires start earlier in the spring and continue later into the fall. Rain comes down in heavier downpours,” Holdren said. “People are experiencing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies. And climate disruptions to water and agriculture have been increasing.”
• American Doomsday: White House Warns of Climate Catastrophes (NBC News):
  “Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington State, and maple syrup producers in Vermont are all observing climate-related changes that are outside of recent experience,” they wrote in the report.
• The White House Outlines How Climate Change Could Cause Civilizational Collapse (Motherboard) [emphasis added]:
  The greater threat, as outlined in the report, is that more frequent and fiercer natural disasters will begin to break down the technologies and implements of modern society, posing dangers not just to a few unfortunate disaster victims, but everyone who has become accustomed to clean water and a steady flow of power. One section quietly details how disruptions like worsening heat waves and drought are already spurring “cascading events” that impact not just a single region or industry, but that are capable of causing water shortages, serious strains on the electrical grid, and severe damages to lives and livelihoods across the economic and social spectrum. Another highlights the now-omnipresent threat of city-wide “multiple systems failures.“
• Fed climate report called ‘tremendous undertaking’ (AP):
  The report, required by federal law, is “the most comprehensive assessment ever done on how climate is affecting the United States,” said University of Illinois climate scientist Donald Wuebbles, a study author.
• Does National Climate Assessment lack necessary nuance? (Washington Post Capitol Weather Gang)
• Warming ‘increasingly disruptive’ across US – report (BBC):
  Between 1958 and 2012, the amount of precipitation falling in very heavy events increased by 71% in New England and the north east, while in the drier West it went up by just 5%. “There is no equivocation,” said lead author Prof Gary Yohe from Wesleyan University. “It is fundamentally the pace of observations of extreme weather that makes it clear it is not natural variability.”
• Obama Administration Releases Major Climate Change Report (TIME) [emphasis added]:
  [The report] details the tough toll of climate change on the U.S. and what may happen if it’s not addressed. The findings are especially bad for California and Alaska, which will experience severe drought and melting.
• The 5 Scariest Charts In The New National Climate Assessment (Huffington Post Green)
• White House: Climate Change Denial Industry Will FAIL:
• VIDEO: John Podesta: Those Who Would Stop Climate Action Will Fail (5/5/14: White House Press Briefing)
• VIDEO: To Fox, A Legally Mandated Climate Change Report Is Just Another Distraction (Media Matters)
• Fox’s Benghazi Obsession Even Extends To The Weather (Media Matters)
• Clean Tech Industry Poised to Profit From Innovation:
• The tech trends to watch while America is boiling, storming, burning & drying up (Gigaom):
  The cleantech crowd was right, at least when it comes to the impact that climate change is having on our planet. Here are some tech trends to watch while the planet is warming.

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

• Stanford to divest from coal companies (Stanford University):
  Acting on a recommendation of Stanford’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing, the Board of Trustees announced that Stanford will not make direct investments in coal mining companies. The move reflects the availability of alternate energy sources with lower greenhouse gas emissions than coal.
• Oklahoma Should Brace For A Big Earthquake (Climate Progress):
  On Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) issued an earthquake warning for a state east of the Rockies — for the first time ever. The warning was for Oklahoma, where the rate of earthquakes has increased by about 50 percent since last October.
  …
  While fracking itself has been linked to a handful of earthquakes, it is the injection of fracking wastewater deep into the earth that is believed to trigger most fracking-related tremors.
• East Antarctica more at risk than thought to long-term thaw (Reuters):
  “East Antarctica’s Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant. Once uncorked, it empties out,” Matthias Mengel of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, lead author of the study in the journal Nature Climate Change, said in a statement.
• Drought-Stricken Texas Town Turns To Toilets For Water (NPR)
• Ocean data points to strong El Nino: climate scientist (Reuters)
• WA & OR: State oil trains run into heavy opposition (The Olympian)
• Organic Farming Factions Spat Over Synthetic Substances (NPR)
• Supreme Court favors environmentalists in urban runoff case (LA Times)
• Indiana leads nation in coal ash ponds, raising toxin concerns (Indiana Star)
• Supreme Court’s Decision Upholding Cross-State Air Rule Is Good Sign for Greenhouse Gas Rules (Legal Planet)
• Washington State Announces Effort To Take Climate Fight Into Its Own Hands (Climate Progress)
• This space-age insulation company you’ve never heard of is planning to go public (Giga-Om)
• How to Solve Global Warming: It’s the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
  Carbon storage has to expand rapidly, or coal burning has to cease, if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change.
  …
  Restraining global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius will require changing how the world produces and uses energy to power its cities and factories, heats and cools buildings, as well as moves people and goods in airplanes, trains, cars, ships and trucks, according to the IPCC. Changes are required not just in technology, but also in people’s behavior.

FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• Video Proof That Global Warming is a ‘Hoax’!: NASA Temperature Data 1888-2011 (The BRAD BLOG):



• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).