Follow and stream @GreenNewsReport!…
(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)
IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Republican candidates continue to dodge the climate change question; Mountaintop removal coal mining promotes lung cancer; ‘Significant’ oil spill in Louisiana bayou; 2014 on track to be hottest year on record; PLUS: LEGO breaks up with Shell Oil… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
10/21/2014
‘Green News Report’ – October 21, 2014 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – October 21, 2014 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
0:00
0:00
CORRECTION: Today’s episode of the GNR incorrectly identifies Rep. John Yarmuth (D) as a U.S. Congressman from West Virginia. In fact, he represents Kentucky. We apologize for the error!
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): Republicans: “I am not a scientist” on climate change, but let me advise you on Ebola; Rooftop solar: utilities must adapt or die; Extinction watch: only 6 white rhinos left; Zombie glacier surprises glaciologists; Oceans to lose $1 trillion in value due to acidification; New Method factory will be world’s largest rooftop farm… PLUS: A Man For All Seasons: Remembering Rick Piltz, Climate Science Whistleblower… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Republicans Dodge & Evade the Climate Change Question:
- CT: Gubernatorial Candidates Spar On Campaign Financing, Climate Change (Hartford Courant):
when asked about climate change, following several severe weather events in the state in the past four years, Foley said that he did not know whether human activity contributed to global warming, while Visconti said that global temperatures were moving toward a “mini Ice Age.”
- Paul Ryan Still Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About On Climate Change (Climate Progress)
- 2014 On Track to be Hottest Year on Record:
- Global Analysis – September 2014 (NOAA)
- Hot News: 2014 On Track to Become Warmest Year (Climate Central) [emphasis added]:
Back in August, the year ranked as the third warmest on record. The jump this month came “because we keep seeing record warm months or near-record warm months,” said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist with ERT, Inc., at the NCDC. In fact, leaving aside calendar years, the period from October 2013 through September 2014 “is the warmest 12-month period that we’ve ever had on record,” Blunden told Climate Central.
- Hottest 12 Months On Record: NOAA Data ‘Show No Pause In Warming’ (Climate Progress)
- World’s Oceans Set All-Time Heat Record for Third Time This Year (Mashable)
- Warming Earth heading for hottest year on record (AP)
- Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Promotes Lung Cancer:
- Study links mountaintop removal dust to cancer (Charleston Gazette):
“A growing body of evidence links living in proximity to [mountaintop removal] activities to greater risk of serious health consequences, including significantly higher reports of cancer,” the study said. “Our finding strengthens previous epidemiological studies linking [mountaintop removal] to increased incidence of lung cancer, and supports adoption of prevention strategies and exposure control.”
- VIDEO: Federal Government Must Study Health Impact of Mountaintop Removal Mining (Rep. John Yarmuth, Youtube)
- Mountaintops, communities permanently altered in West Virginia (Al Jazeera America)
- Louisiana: Another Day, Another Oil Spill:
- Crude oil spills into Caddo bayou, kills wildlife (Shreveport Times):
A major crude oil spill discovered near here Monday that stopped just shy of Caddo Lake has already killed dozens of fish and some reptiles and will keep cleanup crews and regulatory agencies on site likely for months to come.
- Officials say oil spill has not reached Caddo Lake (Fuel Fix)
- LEGO Breaks Up With Shell:
- Greenpeace Versus Shell Via Lego: The Building Blocks Of A Successful PR Campaign (Science20)
- Lego ends partnership with Shell over Greenpeace campaign (CNET) [emphasis added]:
“The success of the Greenpeace campaign breaking the link between Lego and Shell shows that there is widespread public discomfort at the way fossil fuel companies try to get their ‘don’t worry about the future’ message across by linking to other brands.
- How LEGO got awesome to #SaveTheArctic (Greenpeace USA):
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- A Man For All Seasons: Remembering Rick Piltz, Climate Science Whistleblower (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
Rick Piltz, a true climate hero, passed away Saturday. Readers knew him best as the founder and Director of the website Climate Science Watch, which we regularly cited and reposted. But Rick was sui generis, a man of principle, a genuine whistle blower.
- Climate Change vs. Ebola: GOP Says We’re Not Scientists Except When We Are (Rude Pundit) [emphasis added]:
Republicans are glad to tell you that either the evidence is inconclusive or that they are too dumb to understand the science when it comes to climate change, so they think it’s wrong to act like it’s a crisis and refuse to do anything to slow or halt it. However, they will go bugnuts crazy and try to cause panic when it comes to the science around the spread of Ebola, even when they have it wrong.
- Rooftop solar is just the beginning; utilities must innovate or go extinct (Grist):
Sooner or later, there must be a wholesale rethinking of the utility business model. And if utilities are smart, they’ll do it sooner.
- Death Of Northern White Rhino Leaves Only Six Left In Existence (Climate Progress):
No northern white rhinos are known to have survived in the wild, and Suni was one of the last two breeding males in the world leaving the future of his species in serious doubt. “The species now stands at the brink of complete extinction, a sorry testament to the greed of the human race,” said the conservancy in a statement.
- Zombie Glacier Surprises Scientists (Climate Central):
The discovery of a ghoulishly semi-lifeless glacier in southeastern Iceland doesn’t just create a new zombie class of frozen rivers of water. It raises questions about the accuracy of conventional approaches to measuring the growth and retreat of similar glaciers.
- Oceans Could Lose $1 Trillion in Value Due to Acidification (Scientific American):
A very young field of research is trying to measure the costs of oceans growing more acidic.
- Lab technician confesses to faking water samples at request of coal companies (Charleston Gazette):
Employees of a Raleigh County laboratory falsified water quality samples under pressure from their coal company clients, a laboratory technician and supervisor who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act told a federal judge earlier this month.
- Method’s New Factory to Host World’s Largest Rooftop Farm (Triple Pundit)
- Environmental Issues Become a Force in Political Advertising (NY Times):
Ads mentioning energy, climate change and the environment – over 125,000 spots and climbing on the Senate side – have surged to record levels during the 2014 midterm election cycle.
- Amid California’s drought, a bruising battle for cheap water (LA Times):
In truth, neither is to blame for Westlands’ woes so much as the simple fact that the nation’s largest irrigation district is in the wrong place.
- Lifecycle Study Shows Renewable Electricity Is Greener Than All Other Sources: (Climate Central):
[R]esearchers conducted the first-ever lifecycle analysis of a wide-scale global rollout of new wind, hydro and solar power plants, asking whether shifting from coal and natural gas power generation to renewables would increase or decrease certain types of pollution.
..
[O]ver time, the environmental impact of extracting those raw materials declines, pollution decreases and the total quantity of those materials likely needed for renewables is a fraction of the volume of those materials being mined today, the study says. - Study: Natural gas surge won’t slow global warming (AP) [emphasis added]:
[T]he new international study says an expansion of natural gas use by 2050 would also keep other energy-producing technologies like wind, solar and nuclear, from being used more. And those technologies are even better than natural gas for avoiding global warming.
- Defense Sec. Hagel: Climate change will challenge US military (AP) [emphasis added]:
“Climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’ because it has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we already confront today – from infectious disease to armed insurgencies – and to produce new challenges in the future,” Hagel said.
- 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.
“The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions …”
Not happening in the U.S. …
We are back to our old tricks by going up 2.5 percent (Deja Vu 2.0: Back To The Future All Over Again).