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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: It's Donald Trump vs. reality in energy and water speeches in California; Activist shareholders fail to get oil companies to address climate change; Record rains and flash floods in Houston; Good news for fish in the Arctic; PLUS: New record low for Las Vegas' water supply... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Scientists Find Still More Antarctic Ice That May Be In Trouble; Enviros Reject Rep. Smith’s Request For Info On Exxon Climate Case; Nuclear Plants, Despite Safety Concerns, Gain Support as Clean Energy; Canada, U.S. Warn of Eight Chemicals in Great Lakes; Can US Protect The Salamander And Its Essential Role In The Food Chain?; U.S. Top Court Backs Property Owners Over Wetlands Permits; African Women Are Breaking Their Backs To Get Water For Their Families...PLUS: Sanders Challenges White House and DNC Over Fracking...and much, MUCH more! ...

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

• Trump vs. reality on energy:
• VIDEO: Donald Trump Energy Speech at Petroleum Conference in Bismarck North Dakota (Youtube)
• Trump's Energy Speech - An America First Energy Plan (Trump for President campaign)
• Donald Trump's "America-First Energy Plan" Shows He Knows Virtually Nothing About the Issue (MIT Technology Review)
• Donald Trump's horrifying gullibility, as revealed in his energy speech (Vox):
  
  Trump reads his speech and discovers what his policies are.
• 6 things we learned from Donald Trump's first big energy speech (Vox):
  
  Trump's energy policy sounds nearly identical to Mitt Romney's energy policy in 2012, only with more exclamation points. (At one point Trump actually used the phrase "very, very pure, sweet, beautiful oil.")
• Trump Vows to Undo Obama Actions, Paris Deal in Energy Speech (Bloomberg)
• Tall Buildings Are Bigger Threat to Birds Than Wind Power (Bloomberg)
About 599 million birds are killed annually in the U.S. when they fly into windows, trailing only loss of habitat and cats as the top causes of bird deaths, according to the National Audubon Society. Wind turbines account for about 234,000.
• Trump’s Big Complaint About Clean Power Is That Wind Kills Birds (Blomberg)
• “I will give you everything” promises Trump in announcing his energy plan - everything but the unicorn (Ars Technica)
Trump went on to say it had a 30-year payback time, which is simply false...
• Trump vs. reality on water, drought in California:
• VIDEO: Donald Trump Talks CA Drought in Fresno, CA (Youtube)
• Did Donald Trump Deny The California Drought Because He’s Lost Touch With Reality? (Climate Progress)
• Donald Trump: "There is No Drought" and Other California Water Inanities (Peter Gleick, Huffington Post):
  
  Today in a rally in Fresno, California, Donald Trump made a few comments about water. They were all inanities, parroting old Republican mis-statements and misrepresentations about the causes of California's water challenges.
• Here's the real story behind Trump's drought denial (Grist)
• Conservatives Blame California's Drought on Environmentalists - And want the government to spend billions to solve it (Rebecca Leber, The New Republic):
  
  If Republicans get their way, they'd undertake a grossly short-sighted approach-effectively sacrificing more animals and more habitat to buy a few moments more of unfettered water use-until Californians won't be able to undo the permanent damage to the region.
• Oh Thank Goodness Donald Trump Knows How to Fix the Drought (Wired)
• There's a lot to unpack in just one of Donald Trump's answers about energy policy (Washington Post)
• Media Condemn Trump For Claiming “There Is No Drought” In California (Media Matters)
• VIDEO: Lies Trump Reality (Bad Astonomer, Slate):
  
  To believe there’s plenty of water in California you’d either have to be a cactus or completely, utterly oblivious to reality. Because that’s grossly wrong. Grotesquely wrong.
• Activist shareholders fail to get oil companies to address climate change:
• Exxon Mobil, Chevron Shareholders Reject Resolutions Aimed At Battling Climate Change (NPR)
• Exxon’s CEO Just Won: His Shareholders Rejected Climate Change Proposals (Climate Progress):
  
  “We know the path that Exxon is on, and the business strategy as it exists today, and as it existed for the last 50 years, is not a business strategy that is going to work in the 21st century,” Natasha Lamb, Arjuna Capital’s director of equity research and shareholder engagement, told ThinkProgress after the meeting. “It is not in line with a low carbon scenario where we limit the burning of fossil fuels.”
• Chevron CEO to climate activists: What would you live without? (SF Gate)
• Houston: Record rain and floods obliterate rainfall record - Germany, too:
• Is Houston Sustainable?: A Flood Postmortem (Texas Monthly):
  
  "It is obvious that we have not designated our city’s infrastructure to meet those needs."
• Texas' Brazos River hits century high, Houston braces for floods (Reuters)
• Some moving, others staying after latest Texas flooding (Fox News)
• Paris museums on alert as Seine rises after torrential rain (RTE)
• Heavy Rains Cause Floods in France and Kill 9 in Germany (NY Times)
• Lake Mead hits new record low:
• Lake Mead sinks to record low, risking water shortage (USA Today)
• California eases water restrictions, even as Lake Mead dries up (Tuscon Sentinel)
• Good news for fish in (some regions of) the Arctic:
• Major fishing deal offers protection to Arctic waters (Guardian UK):
  
  "From the 2016 season the catching sector will not expand their cod fishing activities with trawl gear into those areas where regular fishing has not taken place before," the deal reads.
• Historic deal protects pristine Arctic waters from fishing (The Barents Observer)
• Major British seafood brands linked to fishing in fragile Arctic area (Guardian UK):
  
  At least 70% of all the Atlantic cod that ends up in supermarkets around the world is from the Barents Sea, but Greenpeace said its evidence of fishing further north - while not illegal - could damage fragile ecosystems. Importantly, it would also undermine commitments to sustainable fishing practices designed to reassure consumers and prominent on packaging and labelling.

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

• Scientists Find Still More Antarctic Ice That May Be In Trouble (Washington Post):
  
  Scientists are finding still another region of ice in Antarctica that may be unstable because of climate change --- and contribute to sea-level rise.
• At Least 33 US Cities Used Water Testing 'Cheats' Over Lead Concerns (Guardian UK):
  
  A Guardian investigation reveals that testing regimes similar to that of Flint were in place in major cities including Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia/
• Enviros Reject Rep. Smith’s Request For Info On Exxon Climate Case (Washington Post):
  
  The battle over Exxon Mobil and the issue of climate change took a new turn Wednesday. Environmental groups, citing constitutional rights, said they would not comply with a sweeping request for information from the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology led by Chairman Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex.).
• Nuclear Plants, Despite Safety Concerns, Gain Support as Clean Energy (NY Times):
  
  Just a few years ago, the United States seemed poised to say farewell to nuclear energy. No company had completed a new plant in decades, and the disaster in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 intensified public disenchantment with the technology, both here and abroad.
• Sanders Challenges White House and DNC Over Fracking (Washington Post):
  
  Just days after two federal agencies seemed to clear the way for offshore fracking in the Pacific Ocean, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on it to stop.
• Canada, U.S. Warn of Eight Chemicals in Great Lakes (ENS):
  
  Canada and the United States have identified eight substances in the water of the Great Lakes as chemicals of mutual concern under the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. These chemicals are potentially harmful to human health or the environment or both.
• Can US Protect The Salamander And Its Essential Role In The Food Chain? (Christian Science Monitor):
  
  A dramatic decline in Europe's salamander population has motivated the US to halt the import and trade of hundreds of salamander species this year and study the health of amphibian communities around the country for signs of disease.
• U.S. Top Court Backs Property Owners Over Wetlands Permits (Reuters):
  
  The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a setback to federal authorities on environmental law by ruling on Tuesday that property owners can challenge the government over the need for costly permits under a water protection statute in a Minnesota peat mine dispute.
• African Women Are Breaking Their Backs To Get Water For Their Families (Washington Post):
  
  Four years after the United Nations announced that it cut the number of people without access to cleaner water by half, getting to that water is still a major hardship for much of sub-Saharan Africa, a new analysis shows.
• California Senate Moves To Delay Oakland Coal-Export Plant (AP):
  
  Democrats in the California Senate on Wednesday approved legislation that would delay a proposed export facility in Oakland to ship coal to Asia, a project that's drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists.
• Want to fight climate change? Here are the 7 critical life changes you should make (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  
  So, given the imperfections of this world, what is a lone wolf such as yourself to do? Here are some conclusions gleaned from this study: 1. Buy the most fuel-efficient car you can afford, then drive it as little as possible....

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

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

                 

Article Categories: California, Texas, Arizona, Environment, Republicans, Nevada, Green News, Fracking, Donald Trump, Natural gas, Coal, Chevron, Oil, Wind energy, Solar energy, Climate change, Extreme weather, Election 2016, Exxon Mobil, Oceans/Sea Level Rise