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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Sec. John Kerry slams climate change deniers in government; More whistleblowers corroborate a Florida ban on 'climate change'; Solar energy is booming, in the good, non-explosive, jobs-creating kind of way; PLUS: Great news for the oil industry! Thanks to the oil industry, Arctic sea ice heads to a record low....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): World record-breaking 8 ft of snow in 18 hours hits Italy; Scientists near breakthrough on artificial photosynthesis; Leaked emails reveal who' who list of climate denialists; India to hide pollution data from the public; Math and myth clash in Senate hearing on Clean Power Plan; The Hydraulic Hypothesis and the 'ends' of civilization; Plastic runs through everything; Farmers take up no-till agriculture ... PLUS: Unlike temperatures, climate change deniers falling fast... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• VIDEO: Florida's Word Police Try to Ban Climate Change: (The Nightly Show):




• More Whistleblowers Corroborate Florida Unofficial Ban on 'Global Warming'':
• As Gov. Scott Denies Ban, 'Climate Change' Order Reported at Other Agencies (FL Center for Investigative Reporting) [emphasis added]:
  
  Jerry Phillips, a former DEP attorney who runs the Florida chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said he's received more than a dozen complaints from DEP employees on this topic over the past five years.... "The level of fear, in my opinion, is at an all-time high at the DEP. In general, they feel they are being muzzled and cannot do their jobs."
• Fla. scientist told to remove words 'climate change' from study on climate change (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  
  The conversations that came next, Radke said, were over the phone. Her co-author, she said, told her they had to expunge the term "climate change" from the paper, per Watkins's directive. "We had to submit the paper to the state Department of Health for clearance, and one of the comments we got back was that we couldn't use that phrase," Radke said Monday evening in an interview.
• As Gov. Scott Denies Ban, 'Climate Change' Order Reported at Other Agencies (FL Center for Investigative Reporting)
• In Florida, Officials Ban Term 'Climate Change' (Florida Center for Investigative Reporting)
• It's 'Orwellian': Florida Scientists Respond To Report That State Agency Banned 'Climate Change' (Climate Progress)
• Florida's Gov. Rick Scott denies muzzling global warming talk (Politico)
• Sec. State Kerry Slams Climate-Change-Denying Government Officials:
• John Kerry Bashes Florida's Reported Ban On Term 'Climate Change' (Talking Points Memo) [emphasis added]:
  
  "Literally a couple of days ago, I read about some state officials who are actually trying to ban the use of the term 'climate change' in public documents because they're not willing to face the facts," Kerry said. "Now, folks, we literally do not have the time to waste debating whether we can say 'climate change,'" he continued. "We have to talk about how we solve climate change."
• World Must Avoid 'Moral Failure' at Climate Change Talks: Kerry (NBC News)
• VIDEO: 'The Road to Paris' Climate Series: The Significance of COP21 with Secretary Kerry (The Atlantic Council)
• Arctic Sea Ice Headed For New Record Low:
• Arctic Sea Ice Dwindles toward Record Winter Low (Scientific American)
• The U.S. Is Not Ready for a Melting Arctic (National Journal):
  
  Emergency response, navigation, and charting has not kept pace with the rapidly changing polar region....Next month, the U.S. is set to take the helm of the Arctic Council, an international forum for the polar region...But the U.S. has essentially given the Arctic the cold shoulder. Lawmakers, federal officials, and experts warn that Arctic investment has not kept pace with rapid ice-melt and caution that the U.S. must overcome a lack of funding and resources as it patrols the polar region.
• Lack of Snow, Record Warmth Force Alaska's Iditarod to Move North - TWICE:
• Baked Alaska: Climate Change is already affecting Alaska's weather: (Slate) [emphasis added]:
  
  If the Last Frontier is the canary in the climate coal mine, we're in trouble.
  ...
  Rick Thoman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Alaska, has been dumbfounded. "Homer, Alaska, keeps setting record after record, and I keep looking at the data like, Has the temperature sensor gone out or something?"
• Interior Alaska snow replaces Southcentral slush as Iditarod starts in Fairbanks (Alaska Dispatch)
• VIDEO: Iditarod Imports Snow for Race's Slushy Start: (PBS NewsHour)
• Irony: Melting Arctic Easier For Oil Exploration:
• VIDEO: On snowy D.C. day, Senate hearing on the Arctic turns to climate change (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  
  [Sen. Murkowski called] on the federal government to seize the "opportunities that are coming with diminished polar sea ice," including offshore oil and gas exploration.
  ...
  "Okay, so we have a bit of an ironic situation here, do we not?" Franken said. "That the burning of fossil fuels is creating opportunities to find more fossil fuels to burn?"
  "It is obviously ironic, yes," Bitz said.
  "Yes, it's funny how ironic it is," Franken deadpanned. "It's hilarious."



• VIDEO: Full Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing on Arctic Resource Development - full segment starts at 2:04:00 (C-SPAN)
• Renewable Energy Booming in the US - In a Good Way:
• U.S. Solar Jumps 30% as Residential Installs Exceed 1 Gigawatt (Bloomberg)
• By the Time You Read This, They've Slapped a Solar Panel on Your Roof (Bloomberg): A new panel goes up in America every 150 seconds.
• Solar Energy Jobs Growing By Leaps and Bounds (Climate Central)
• Solar Power Sees Unprecedented Boom in U.S. (Scientific American)
• US Wind Power Is Expected to Double in the Next Five Years (Motherboard/VICE) [emphasis added]:
  
  The US Department of Energy anticipates that the amount of electricity generated by wind power will more than double over the next five years. Right now, wind provides the nation with about 4.5 percent of its power, but an in-depth DOE report released today forecasts that number will rise to 10 percent by 2020.... In some places in the US, wind power is already competing, subsidies or no, with dirt cheap fossil fuels like coal.
• Wind could meet many times world's total power demand by 2030, Stanford researchers say (Stanford Univ.):
  
  Adapting a sophisticated climate model, researchers show that there is plenty of wind available to supply half to several times the world's total energy needs within the next two decades.
• REPORT: A New Era for Wind Power in the United States: [PDF] (US Department of Energy)

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

• Italian Village Gets 8 Feet Of Snow In 24 Hours, May Break Global Record (Huffington Post Green) [emphasis added]:
  
  A storm on March 5 dumped just over 100.8 inches (or 8 feet, 4 inches) of snow there in 18 hours.
• Unlike Temperatures, Climate Change Deniers Are Falling Fast (Slate):
  
  If you’re hoping to deny the reality of global warming, things aren’t looking so good for you right now. A couple of events are making it ever more clear that those vocal about it are in trouble. Deservedly.
• Scientists Move Closer to Artificial Photosynthesis Breakthrough to Boosting Renewables (Cliamte Central):
  
  [S]ome scientists are looking to plants and trees for another solution - using a man-made leaf that can turn solar energy into fuel in the form of liquid sugars or carbohydrates....Scientists at Caltech think they have discovered a missing link in the development of an artificial version of that process, according to a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• Leaked Email Reveals Who's Who List of Climate Denialists (InsideClimate News):
  
  A network of pundits and scientists is consulted about stopping release of "Merchants of Doubt," a documentary film that exposes their work.
• Environmentalists wary of India's plan to intervene in publishing of smog data (Guardian UK):
  
  Concerned activists say government plan to analyse pollution figures for capital Delhi before they are released to the public is way to bury bad news.
• Math and Myth Clash in Senate Hearing on Clean Power Plan (InsideClimate News):
  
  State officials' testimony ranges from Indiana's ancient ice age to Wyoming's coal-fired future.
• The Hydraulic Hypothesis and the End of Civilization (Greg Laden, Science Blogs):
  
  The so called “Hydraulic Hypothesis” is an idea first fully characterized by the historian Karl Wittfogel....If agriculture is the basis for a society, and it is carried out in a semi-arid region, then the management of water through various forms of irrigation and the centralized control of the agricultural cycle lends itself to centralized despotic leadership. or at least, some kid of cultural and social change allowing for organized effort to predominate over individual self interest.
• American Petro-Topia: Plastic runs in my family and yours, too (Aeon Magazine):
  
  The genius and hubris of plastic has been absorbed by every living thing. Is it a curse or evolution’s next step?
• North Carolina Fines Duke Energy $25.1 Million (NY Times):
  
  North Carolina officials say they have hit Duke Energy, the nation’s largest electric utility, with the largest environmental fine in state history...
• Farmers Put Down the Plow for More Productive Soil (NY Times):
  
  Such farming methods, which mimic the biology of virgin land, can revive degenerated earth, minimize erosion, encourage plant growth and increase farmers’ profits, their proponents say.
• Rate Of Climate Change To Soar By 2020s, With Arctic Warming 1°F Per Decade (Climate Progress):
  
  New research from a major national lab projects that the rate of climate change, which has risen sharply in recent decades, will soar by the 2020s. This worrisome projection - which has implications for extreme weather, sea level rise, and permafrost melt - is consistent with several recent studies.
• How The Merchants Of Doubt Push Climate Denial On Your Television (Media Matters) [emphasis added]:
  
  An infamous 1969 memo from a tobacco executive read: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy." Using similar tactics, a very small set of people have had immense influence in sowing doubt on the scientific consensus of manmade climate change in recent years.
• Now's Your Chance to Help Save the Imperiled Monarch Butterfly-and Get Paid to Do So (Take Part) [emphasis added]:
  
  Another threat, according to Grant, has been well-intentioned individuals who have planted a tropical form of milkweed, which competes with native varieties and is not beneficial to monarchs or other pollinators.

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: Florida, John Kerry, Alaska, Whistleblowers, Environment, State Department, Al Franken, Green News, Natural gas, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Rick Scott, Extreme weather, Exxon Mobil