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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Tide turns against climate change deniers, as even Rupert Murdoch dumps rightwing policy front group ALEC; Climate change now a defining campaign issue in races around country; 35k walruses start their own sad climate march in Alaska; PLUS: Tide turns against King Coal: Canadian coal mine sells for just $2 … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
10/2/2014
‘Green News Report’ – October 2, 2014 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – October 2, 2014 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Northern “biopirates” gobbling up resources of the Global South; Renewables take top share of German power supply for 9 nine straight months; August 2014: Greenland is the New Black; Duke Energy to keep ratepayer money for canceled nuclear plant; WV: Mountaintop removal again nixed by court; Fracking: TX residents challenge open sludge pits near schools; Solar on your parking lot; Negative ‘Windfarm study’ didn’t study windfarms … PLUS: Future generations will ask “Where were you?” for the People’s Climate March… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Tide Turns Against Coal: Canadian Mine for Sale for $2
- Canadian coal mine Grande Cache sold for US$2 amid plunging bulk commodities demand (Financial Post)
- VIDEO: US coal prices down despite falling stockpile; China to impose restriction on coal imports Platt’s Energy)
- Tide Turning Against Global Coal Industry: New Report (DeSmog Blog) [emphasis added]:
Coal, the fossil fuel that largely sparked the industrial revolution, may be facing the beginning of the end “” at least in terms of generating electricity.
- Global coal glut prompts coal miners to chant ‘cut, cut, cut’ (Mining Weekly)
- Alpha Sees as Few as 2 Large U.S. Coal Miners After Slump (Bloomberg)
- Tide Turns Against Deniers: Climate Change Now a Campaign Issue:
- VIDEO: This 17-Second Video Explains Why the Political Media is Failing Us on Climate Change (Treehugger, October 2012)
- Colorado’s GOP Candidate For Governor Goes All In On Climate Change Denial (Climate Progress)
- VIDEO: Hickenlooper, Beauprez offer clear contrast in Denver Post debate (Denver Post)
- Iowa Senate Candidate Joni Ernst Joins The ‘I Don’t Know The Science’ Chorus On Climate Change (Climate Progress)
- Dumping Deniers: Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp Dumps ALEC:
- News Corp and Occidental Among Latest Firms to Cut Ties with ALEC (PR Watch) [emphasis added]:
“Climate deniers are the new tobacco executives — nobody wants to be seen with them. With Google, Facebook, Yelp, and Microsoft all dumping ALEC, it’s increasingly obvious that you cannot run a successful 21st century company while associating with ideologues from the stone age. Fossil fuel-backed groups like ALEC are on the wrong side of nearly every effort to tackle the climate crisis and on the wrong side of history.”
- Six More Corporations Dump ALEC; 38 Companies Have Now Cut Ties with Corporate Bill Mill (PR Watch)
- Head Of ALEC: ‘I Don’t Know The Science’ Of Climate Change (Climate Progress)
- Google Chairman: ALEC Is Lying About Climate Change And Funding Them Was A Mistake (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
“Everyone understands climate change is occurring and the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place,” Schmidt said. “And so we should not be aligned with such people – they’re just, they’re just literally lying.“
- Tech Companies Are Dropping ALEC En Masse (Climate Progress)
- Large Oil Company Bolts From ALEC (National Journal)
- Mass Walrus Beaching In Alaska As Summer Sea Ice Disappears:
- 35,000 walruses start their own climate march (Grist)
- Stranded Walrus Are A ‘New Phenomenon’ And We Don’t Know How Bad It Will Get (Climate Progress)
- US reroutes flights around Alaska beach in attempt to avoid walrus stampede (Guardian UK)
- Biologists spot huge gathering of walruses on beach near Point Lay (Alaska Dispatch)
- 35,000 Beached Walruses Still Can’t Convince The Daily Caller On Climate Change (Media Matters)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Renewables Take Top Share of German Power Supply in First (Bloomberg):
Germany for the first time got more electricity from renewables than any other source of energy, evidence Chancellor Angela Merkel is making progress in weaning the nation off nuclear power.
- VIDEO: August 2014: Greenland is the New Black (Climate Crocks, Dark Snow Project):
Newest observations show the lowest reflectivity on record for Greenland’s Upper elevations.
- Duke Energy Will Keep Ratepayers’ $54m For Canceled Nuke Plant: (Tampa Bay Times) [emphasis added]:
An 8-year-old state law enabled Duke to collect the money in advance for the Levy project. The law, the Nuclear Cost Recovery Clause, or so-called “nuclear advance fee,” allows Florida utilities to collect money from their customers for nuclear projects before they begin producing power. …”This isn’t early cost recovery,” Bradford said. “This is phantom cost recovery. The money taken from customers didn’t buy anything.”
- Northern “Biopirates” Gobbling up Living Resources of the Global South (Stephen Leahy):
Rich countries are like biopirates, looting far-away lands for food, raw materials and cheap labour. They’re plundering other richer ecosystems because they’ve largely destroyed their own. And they’re blocking global efforts to create an independent scientific assessment panel that is likely point the finger at the real reason species are going extinct at 1,000 times their natural pace, experts say.
- More Bad News For Coal: Mountaintop Removal Nixed By Court (CleanTechnia):
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday won another major legal victory in the long saga of one of the largest mountaintop removal mining permits in West Virginia history.
- Low-frequency noise study did not test for hearing damage or windfarm impacts (Carbon Brief) [emphasis added]:
Living close to a windfarm could damage your hearing, according to articles in today’s Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail and Express….However, the research involved did not measure deafness, did not mimic wind turbines and did not show that windfarms cause hearing damage, according to the lead author of the study.
- VIDEO: In Fracking’s Wake: Vast Open Pits of Chemical Sludge (InsideClimate News):
‘A lot of people are worried about the water, and about the smell, and of course what’s going up into the air.’
- Put Up (Solar on) a Parking Lot? (Climate Crocks):
But increasingly, when it comes to energy use and sustainability, parking lots are actually becoming part of the solution. Why? In many parts of the country, they are becoming solar power plants.
- Emergency plan on New England cod fish sought (AP) [emphasis added]:
The National Marine Fisheries Service expects to implement emergency measures in November aimed at stemming cod fish decline in the Gulf of Maine….Numerous commercial and recreation fishermen spoke out against restrictions, saying some of the proposals would be too onerous.
- Global wildlife populations down by half since 1970 (CBC) [emphasis added]:
The report also measured how close the planet is to nine so-called “planetary boundaries”, thresholds of “potentially catastrophic changes to life as we know it.” Three such thresholds have already been crossed – biodiversity, carbon dioxide levels and nitrogen pollution from fertilisers. Two more were in danger of being breached – ocean acidification and phosphorus levels in freshwater.
- National Science Foundation: Record California Drought Directly Linked To Climate Change (Climate Progress)
- 4 Scenarios Show What Climate Change Will Do To The Earth, From Pretty Bad To Disaster (Fast CoExist):
But exactly how bad is still an open question, and a lot depends not only on how we react, but how quickly. The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions–if we do choose to cut them–will have a large bearing on how the world turns out by 2100, the forecasts reveal.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
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.
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