With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
'2010 In Review' Edition!
By Desi Doyen on 12/30/2010, 1:15pm PT  


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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: The Green News Report's 2010 Year in Review: Around the world and back again, the top green news stories of the year --- from politics to the planet, a quick look back over where we've been ... PLUS: Make the next year the greenest ever! .... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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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): Few mining sites restored after mining ends; Lower-carbon replacement for oil?: Pollutants, PCBs, retard boys' growth: study; GE to pay $500 million fine for PCBs in Hudson River; Road salt bad for environment, health, water supplies; OPEC keeps oil above $91/barrel --- heading to $200 oil?; China defends cuts in rare earth export quotas; EPA overstates coal waste's value ... PLUS: Antarctica: Unraveling the History Beneath the Ice ....

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

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

  • AP Enterprise: Few sites redeveloped after mining (AP):
    [D]ata obtained by The Associated Press indicates that just a small percentage of the leveled Appalachian mountain landscape has been transformed into new developments such as businesses, prisons, golf courses and subdivisions.
  • A Lower-Carbon Route to Replacing Oil (NYT Green):
    An emerging surfeit of natural gas has chemists and engineers studying how to turn it into pricier commodities, like diesel fuel or other oil substitutes.
  • Pollutants in boys' blood tied to lower growth (Reuters):
    After following nearly 500 boys for three years, an international group of researchers found that those with the highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their blood were nearly three centimeters (more than an inch) shorter than boys from the same region with the lowest amount of PCBs in their bodies.
    ..
    Boys with the highest exposures also averaged two points lower in body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height.

    The authors found a similar pattern in boys with the highest exposure to the pollutant dioxin.

  • GE expects $500 million charge for NY river cleanup (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
    General Electric Co plans to put aside another $500 million to dredge toxic chemicals it dumped into New York's Hudson River more than 30 years ago, bringing the clean-up bill to $1.33 billion over two decades.
    ...
    GE dumped the chemicals, which it had used as an insulator in electric components, into a 40-mile stretch of the river north of the state capital Albany, some 150 miles north of New York City, for three decades prior to discontinuing their use in 1977.
  • Salt on the roads: Good for safety, bad for environment (Philadlephia Inquirer) [emphasis added]:
    Over the last 60 years - pretty much since regular use of sodium chloride on roads began - the annual average sodium concentration in the Delaware River has nearly tripled and chloride has increased fivefold, researchers have found.
    ..
    If current trends continue in the coming decades, however, experts say that aquatic life will suffer and water supplies could be threatened. Sodium is a concern for people with medical conditions such as hypertension.
  • Oil stays above $91 as OPEC signals no output hike (AP):
    Oil prices hovered above $91 a barrel Monday in Asia as some OPEC ministers signaled the group doesn't plan to boost output to cool the recent jump in crude.
  • OPEC Caught Lying, $200 Oil is Imminent (Energy & Capital):
    So your friendly neighborhood fuel gang has been breaking its output limit by 1.934 million barrels — everyday, all year long.

    With crude at its highest price in two years, overproduction allows OPEC members to boost profits without formally changing output targets.

  • China defends cuts in rare earth export quotas (Globae & Mail):
    China defended its export controls on rare earth minerals on Thursday, saying that they were in line with World Trade Organization rules, after a government move to slash export quotas on rare earths sparked trade concerns.

    China, which produces about 97 per cent of the global supply of the metals used in the production of numerous high-tech products, cut its export quota by 35 per cent for the first half of 2011 compared with a year earlier, saying it wanted to conserve reserves.

  • Environmentalists claim EPA overstates coal waste's value (Louisville Courier Journal):
    Inflated values “could end up stacking the deck” in favor of weaker rules for managing the nation’s massive volume of ash and scrubber wastes from coal-fired power plants, said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, one of three groups participating in a telephone press conference on Wednesday.
  • Antarctica: Unraveling the History Beneath the Ice: Melting ice offers scientists unprecedented opportunity to study newly uncovered geologic formations (NY Times)
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