IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Epic humanitarian crisis in Haiti; More toxic Chinese toys, toxic plastic bottles, and toxic housedust; Rolling Stone calls out the 'IDIOTS' ... PLUS: The pervasive destruction of Mountaintop Removal mining ... 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': Lobbyists wrote amendment to strip EPA power; Hightower: Selling a City's Soul; The 'godfather of energy efficiency'; China's Supertrains break speed records, ours don't; Russia-Belarus oil dispute threatens Europe; Monsanto's GMO corn linked to organ failure .... PLUS: Ford Fusion Hybrid 2010 Car of the Year ....

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• HELPING HAITI: TEXT 'HAITI' to 90999 to donate $10, charged to your cell phone bill via the International Red Cross
• Haiti Earthquake: How to Help (US) (MSNBC)
• Haiti: How to help (UK): International charities are appealing for donations to help Haiti (BBC)
• HELP HAITI REBUILD: Haiti Quake Appeal: Reconstruction Plan In Development (Architecture for Humanity) [emphasis added]:
  
  We have launched an appeal to focus on the long term reconstruction effort.

  We primarily work in the reconstruction phase of post disaster situations and will be focused on transitional and permanent housing and community structures. We do not do emergency shelter. We are partnering with Yele Haiti, AIDG and other local group by supplying them pro bono construction and design professionals, setting up community housing resource centers and support in the design and building of earthquake resistant structures.

• International aid efforts for Haiti gather pace (BBC)
• Tectonics and poor construction conspired to create devastation in Haiti: The earthquake was a massive, shallow eruption beneath a heavily populated area that lacked stringent building standards, resulting in catastrophe. (LA Times)
• Flawed Building Likely a Big Element
  : Engineers and architects who have worked in or visited Haiti say that substandard design, inadequate materials and shoddy construction practices likely contributed to the collapse of many buildings in the earthquake that struck Tuesday. (NY Times)
• Here We Go Again: Toxic Chinese Toys... And BPA... and Even Housedust:
• NY senator calls for cadmium ban in kids' jewelry (AP)
• Parents warned against use of cheap kids' jewelry (AP)
• READ THE ADVISORY: CPSC Chairman’s Statement on Cadmium in Children’s Products (U.S.
• China probes cadmium levels in kids' trinkets
  (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.)
• Another chain pulls cadmium-tainted kids' jewelry (AP)
• Study Sees Parking Lot Dust As A Cancer Risk: Sealant doesn't stay put on pavements, raising health concerns (MSNBC)
• Elevated amount of BPA can increase cardiac risk by 45%, study finds (Globe and Mail UK)
• Rolling Stone's ONE-TWO Punch on 'Climate Killers':
• The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming (Rolling Stone)
• As the World Burns: How Big Oil and Big Coal mounted one of the most aggressive lobbying campaigns in history to block progress on global warming (Rolling Stone)
• BLOCKBUSTER Study Slams Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining:
• LISTEN: Bob Kinkaid of Head On Radio Network Interviews Lead Scientists of Blockbuster Study on Mountaintop Removal...
  Download MP3 or listen online here:
• Bombshell study: MTR impacts ‘pervasive and irreversible’ (Coal Tattoo)
• READ THE STUDY:
  Mountaintop Mining Consequences (Science) [emphasis added]:
  Abstract: “Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for the losses.”
• STUDY: Leading Scientists Call on EPA, Army Corps of Engineers to Halt New Mining Permits (Univ. of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies)
A group of the nation's leading environmental scientists are calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to stay all new mountaintop mining permits. In the January 8 edition of the journal Science, they argue that peer-reviewed research unequivocally documents irreversible environmental impacts from this form of mining which also exposes local residents to a higher risk of serious health problems.
• WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE (Univ. of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies):
The authors --- hydrologists, ecologists and engineers --- are internationally recognized scientists, including several members of the National Academy of Sciences. They argue that the U.S. should take a global leadership role on the issue, as surface mining in many developing countries is expected to grow extensively in the next decade.

"The scientific evidence of the severe environmental and human impacts from mountaintop mining is strong and irrefutable," says lead author Dr. Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park. "Its impacts are pervasive and long lasting and there is no evidence that any mitigation practices successfully reverse the damage it causes."

• Scientists Say Mountaintop Removal Mining Should Be Banned - No Remediation Ever Enough (Treehugger)
• Science bombshell explodes myth of clean coal: Mountaintop “mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for losses.”
• Climate Denier's Coal Company Violated Clean Water Act 12,000 Times (No Exaggeration) (League of Conservation Voters)
• Environmental Groups Threaten to Sue Massey Energy:
  Sierra Club, other environmental groups threaten to sue Massey Energy over alleged pollution (ABC)
• When Scientists Speak Out: The Power of a Communications Plan: “We’re at a point now where we really can’t afford not to speak up,” Palmer concludes of her efforts. “We’ve got too much at stake.” (Science Progress)
• FLASHBACK: COAL: Did Bush Administration Cover Up Environmental Disaster? (CBS, April 2004)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• Murkowski and her lobbyist allies: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is likely to postpone offering an amendment (pdf) next week that would bar the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act; WaPo confirms lobbyists wrote the amendment. (Washington Post)
• Selling a City's Soul - for Chicken Scratch: KFC, the fast-food chicken chain owned by a global conglomerate named Yum Brands, is in search of fire hydrants it can use to "mark its territory." In particular, the corporation wants to spray hydrants in various cities with its logo. (Truthout)
• You can thank Arthur Rosenfeld for energy savings: Godfather of efficiency retires from California Energy Commission (Climate Progress)
• Why China's Trains Are Breaking Records --- and why high-speed trains in the U.S. aren't (The New Republic)
• Russia-Belarus Oil Dispute Threatens Europe’s Supply (NY Times)
• Monsanto's GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals (Huffington Post)
• Ford Fusion Hybrid wins 2010 Car of the Year, no green spin needed (Grist)

                 

Article Categories: Environment, Green News