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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Japan hit with monster typhoon, while Hurricane Arthur breaks a record on the US East Coast; No time for deniers: BBC smacked for false balance in climate change coverage; Voters reject climate change-denying politicians; Paltry fine for Freedom Industries poisoning drinking water in WV; Oklahoma now the nation's earthquake capitol - thanks, fracking!; PLUS: NASA's new climate eye in the sky ... 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): Pope calls exploitation of nature a sin; Solar cheaper than coal in Australia; Renewable energy provides 1/3rd of Germany's electricity; More US jobs in solar industry than coal industry; Deniers denyin' again in the Daily Mail; Extensive soil pollution in China; Court upholds cities' right to ban fracking ... PLUS: KY State Senator: Mars temperatures exactly the same as Earth ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Freedom Industries Fined $11k for Toxic Coal Ash Spill:
• OSHA fines Freedom $11K in chemical spill (Charleston Gazette):
  
  The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Freedom Industries $7,000 for keeping storage tanks containing crude MCHM behind a diked wall that was not liquid tight. On Jan. 9, roughly 10,000 gallons of MCHM leaked from one of the tanks and through the riverside diked wall and left 300,000 residents without clean water for days. OSHA also fined Freedom Industries $4,000 for failing to have standard railings on an elevated platform.
• Throwing The Pamphlet At Them (Esquire)
• West Virginia Chemical Spill Sets Off a Waste Dispute: Disposal of Materials That Tainted Water Supply Prompts Lawsuits (Wall St. Journal):
  
  The municipalities sued the companies in federal court in May, arguing that the waste is hazardous and not suited to the solid-waste landfill that handles ordinary trash. ...The case could have implications beyond West Virginia, say legal experts, by setting a precedent for when third parties can challenge what regulators deem to be hazardous or safe substances.
• Missteps Ongoing at West Virginia’s Freedom Industries (Insurance Journal)
• Extreme Weather Around the World: Super Typhoon Neoguri, Hurricane Arthur:
• Typhoon Neoguri Weakens to Category 3, But Still a Major Flood Threat to Japan (Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground)
• Typhoon Neoguri whips Okinawa with heavy wind and rain (CNN)
• Hurricane Arthur Recap: First Atlantic Hurricane of the 2014 Season (Weather Channel)
• Was Typhoon Haiyan a Record Storm? [Yes.] (Scientific American)
• Mississippi flooding threatens US midwest as rivers swell in heavy rains (Guardian UK)
• NASA Launches New CO2-Measuring Satellite:
• Satellite OCO-2 Takes the A-Train to Study Earth's Atmosphere (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
• NASA's OCO-2 Satellite Goes Into Orbit to Track Carbon Dioxide (NBC News)
• VIDEO: NASA Satellite will END man-made CO2 debate in orbit at last (The Register UK)
• Majority in US Will Vote Against Climate Science-Denying Politicians:
• Poll: Americans Will Vote for Climate Conscious Candidates (Climate Crocks)
• Politics & Global Warming, Spring 2014 (Yale Project for Climate Communication):
  
  We find that registered voters are 2.5 times more likely to vote for a congressional or presidential candidate who supports action to reduce global warming. Further, registered voters are 3 times more likely to vote against a candidate who opposes action to reduce global warming.
• BBC Criticized for 'False Balance' in Climate Science Coverage:
• BBC admonished for giving climate change deniers equal air time (Washington Post):
  
  “Given the high level of trust the public has in its coverage, it is disappointing that the BBC does not ensure all of its programmes and presenters reflect the actual state of climate science in its output,” the report said, according to the Guardian. “The Today programme and other BBC News teams continue to make mistakes in their coverage of climate science by giving opinions and scientific fact the same weight.”
• AUDIO: MPs criticise BBC for 'false balance' in climate change coverage (Guardian UK)
• BBC staff told to stop inviting cranks on to science programmes (Telegraph UK): BBC Trust says 200 senior managers trained not to insert 'false balance' into stories when issues were non-contentious
• CNBC Caught Soliciting Writer To Claim Global Warming Is A "Hoax" (Media Matters)
• Oklahoma New Earthquake Capitol of U.S. Thanks to Fracking:
• Oklahoma earthquakes linked to fracking wastewater wells, study says (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  
  Fifth of the quakes that helped turn the state into the earthquake capital of America were caused by just four wells...In their study, earthquakes travelled great distances from the disposal sites. There was also a time lag. “This is a situation where the pumping starts months or a couple of years before the earthquakes are observed at all,” Abers said. The researchers found the areas of underground pressure continually expanded, increasing the likelihood of encountering bigger faults, and the risks of triggering higher-magnitude earthquakes.

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

• Actual KY State Senator: Mars Temps Exactly the Same as Earth, and It's Warming Too!!! (The BRAD BLOG):
  
  "I will simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There are no factories on Mars that I'm aware of."
• Pope calls exploitation of nature a sin of our time (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
  
  "This is one of the greatest challenges of our time: to convert ourselves to a type of development that knows how to respect creation," he told students, struggling farmers, and laid-off workers in a university hall. "When I look at America, also my own homeland (South America), so many forests, all cut, that have become land ... that can longer give life. This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to her give us what she has within her," the Argentine pope said in unprepared remarks.
• Coal is Over (Climate Crocks) [emphasis added]:
  
  Last week, for the first time in memory, the wholesale price of electricity in Queensland [Australia] fell into negative territory - in the middle of the day. For several days the price – normally around $40-$50 a megawatt hour – hovered in and around zero. ...Negative pricing is not supposed to happen in the middle of the day. Daytime prices are supposed to reflect higher demand, when people are awake, office building are in use, and factories are in production. It is supposed to be the time of day when fossil fuel generators used to make most of their money.
• Renewable Energy Provided 1/3 of Germany's Energy in First Half of 2014 (Climate Progress):
  
  Thanks to favorable weather and record production from solar and wind power, renewable energy accounted for approximately 31 percent of Germany’s electricity generation in the first half of 2014.
• FACT: More U.S. jobs in solar industry than coal mining (Politifact):
  
  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said that solar industry jobs have now outpaced coal-mining jobs. The most recent data from three objective sources support his claim.
• New York’s top court upholds towns’ right to ban fracking (Al Jazeera America):
  
  The Court of Appeals in a 5-2 decision upheld bans in the Ithaca suburb of Dryden and in Middlefield, near Cooperstown, saying the laws were extensions of the towns' zoning authority. Town are allowed to ban fracking — hydraulic fracturing — only within their borders.
• Study: Mountaintop removal reduces fish population (Coal Tattoo, Charleston Gazette):
  
  Appalachian streams affected by mountaintop removal coal mining can have fewer than half as many fish species and a third as many total fish as other regional waterways, according to a new study published this week by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey.
• Rose-colored glasses: Antarctic sea ice is the Mail on Sunday's latest global warming distraction (Guardian UK)
• Arctic warming upsetting birds' breeding calendar, study warns (Guardian UK)
• The human cost of China's untold soil pollution problem: Rapid industrialisation has left a legacy of soil pollution that is damaging health and livelihoods in villages across China (Guardian UK)
• Russian hackers threaten power companies, US energy infrastructuer, researchers say (Bloomberg News):
  
  A Russian group of hackers known as “Energetic Bear” is attacking energy companies in the U.S. and Europe and may be capable of disrupting power supplies, cybersecurity researchers said.
• World Bank: Fighting Climate Change Would Boost Global Economy Up To $2.6 Trillion A Year (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  
  An important new World Bank report concludes that just a few key policies aimed at cutting carbon pollution would boost the global economy. The study ... finds that if all six embrace three sets of policies for clean transportation plus energy efficiency in industry in buildings, “the annual benefits of just these policies in 2030 include an estimated GDP growth of between $1.8 trillion and $2.6 trillion.” Furthermore, the report found that “these policies alone would account for 30 percent of the total reduction needed in 2030 to limit global warming to 2°C [3.6°F].”

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).

                 

Article Categories: Mainstream Media Failure, Environment, Green News, Japan, Fracking, Natural gas, Coal, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather