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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Record heat, record wildfires & Michelle Malkin on the run; Record flooding in FL so GOP fiddles with federal flood insurance; Climate deniers smack-down by appellate court is good news for anyone who breathes; PLUS: 80% renewable energy by 2050? New study says ‘Yup! And it’s easy!’ … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 6/28/2012

‘Green News Report’ – June 28, 2012  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – June 28, 2012  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Exxon CEO calls climate change engineering problem; Chesapeake Energy Colluded With Rival To Lower Prices In Bid Wars; BPA Linked to Brain Tumors for the First Time; Feds Grant Approval for Southern Portion of Keystone XL Pipeline … PLUS: Kardashians Get 40 Times More News Coverage Than Ocean Acidification … and much, MUCH more! …

STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…

• Doocy: Obama “Continues To Beat That Dead Solar [Energy] Horse” (Media Matters.org)
• Summer of Fire in the US: CO “Fire of Epic Proportions”:
• Mass evacuations ordered as wildfires rage in Colorado: 32,000 people flee homes in the Colorado Springs area, including parts of the Air Force Academy, and Boulder is under threat. (LA Times)
• Waldo Canyon blaze grows, takes hundreds of homes (LA Times)
• Waldo Canyon is latest super fire; get used to them, expert says (LA Times):
  So-called super fires — like the fire currently rampaging through the Colorado Springs area, spurring mass evacuations, destroying property and endangering lives — are not going away.
• Colorado Wildfires Explained in One Chart (Climate Central)
• Goodbye to Mountain Forests? (NYT Green) [emphasis added]:
  Heat-Driven Wildfires Continue to Consume the West (NY Times)
• Record setting heat wave roasts Rockies (Denver), Plains, heading east (Washington Post)
• Another Record Heat Wave Roasts Midwest:
• Midwestern Drought Intensifies: ‘I Don’t Remember Anytime It Was This Dry, This Early’ (Climate Progress):
  A mild snow-less winter, an unusually dry spring, and debilitating heat in May and June have created serious drought conditions in parts of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, among other states.
• Midwest Heat Wave Could Break Records As Temps Rise In Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City (Huffington Post Green)
• Heat Wave Wilts Corn as Supplies Diminish Most Since 1996 (Bloomberg)
• Heat wave shifts to the Midwest; Waldo Canyon Fire still 5% contained. (Dr. Jeff Masters’ Wunderblog)
• More Record-Setting Heat (Dr. Jeff Masters’ Wunderblog)
• As Debby Floods Florida, Sen. Paul Holds Up Federal Flood Insurance:
• Paul: No Flood Insurance Until Senate Votes On Life Beginning At Conception (TPM)
• SMACKDOWN: 4th Circuit Upholds EPA, Slams Deniers
• U.S. Appeals Court Upholds EPA Greenhouse Gas Emission Rules (Climate Progress):
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today unanimously ruled in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) legal authority to limit industrial carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act to protect Americans’ health.
• Court Upholds EPA’s Right to Regulate CO2 (Mother Jones)
• Federal court upholds Obama EPA’s climate change regulations (The Hill’s E2 Wire)
• NREL: 80% Renewable by 2050:
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• Renewable Electricity Futures Study: 80% Renewable by 2050 (National Renewable Energy Laboratory):
  KEY FINDINGS:

  Renewable electricity generation from technologies that are commercially available today, in combination with a more flexible electric system, is more than adequate to supply 80% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2050 while meeting electricity demand on an hourly basis in every region of the country.

• Renewables Could Supply 80% of US Energy by 2050 (RevModo)

‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…

• Exxon CEO calls climate change engineering problem (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
  Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that efforts to address climate change should focus on engineering methods to adapt to shifting weather patterns and rising sea levels rather than trying to eliminate use of fossil fuels.
• STUDY: Kardashians Get 40 Times More News Coverage Than Ocean Acidification (Media Matters.org)
• Chesapeake Energy Colluded With Rival To Lower Prices In Bid Wars (Reuters):
  Under the direction of CEO Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy Corp. plotted with its top competitor to suppress land prices in one of America’s most promising oil and gas plays, a Reuters investigation has found.

  In emails between Chesapeake and Encana Corp, Canada’s largest natural gas company, the rivals repeatedly discussed how to avoid bidding against each other in a public land auction in Michigan two years ago and in at least nine prospective deals with private land owners here.

• BPA Linked to Brain Tumors for the First Time (Mother Jones):
  [A] new study from China has found an association, for the first time, between human exposure to BPA and brain tumors. The kind of tumor, called meningioma, is usually benign and occurs more frequently in women than in men. Since female hormones appear to fuel the growth of meningioma tumors, it’s not surprising that an endocrine-disrupting chemical like BPA, which mimics estrogen in the body, could play a similar role.
• Feds Grant Approval for Southern Portion of Keystone XL Pipeline: (Mother Jones)
• Keystone, Coal Ash Dropped from Compromise Transport Bill Deal (NY Times)
• BP Oil Spill Hastened Loss of Louisiana Marshes, Study Says (Washington Post):
  The 2010 BP oil spill accelerated the loss of Louisiana’s delicate marshlands, which were already rapidly disappearing before the largest oil spill in U.S. history, a new study reports.
• Shell Oil Drilling Rigs Headed To Alaska’s Arctic (McClatchy DC)
Two massive Shell Oil Co. drilling rigs left a Seattle dock early Wednesday, starting the long trek to Alaska’s Arctic waters and leaving behind years of legal battles and regulatory hurdles in a quest for riches under the sea.
• Arctic Sea-Ice Levels at Record Low for June (Guardian UK):
  Sea ice in the Arctic has melted faster this year than ever recorded before, according to the US government’s National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC).
• Enbridge Can’t Say If Federal Cuts Would Undermine Oil Spill Response (Edmonton Journal):
  Alberta-based Enbridge can’t say what impact millions of dollars in cuts to federal environmental emergency staff would have on its oil-spill response plan for the Northern Gateway pipeline project, even though the plan relies partly on federal help if a spill were to occur.
• Inside Climate Special Report: Inside The Dil-Bit Disaster (Inside Climate):
  A major oil spill on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan is still not cleaned up, 2 years later. It’s the same kind of heavy diluted bitumen oil to be carried by the Keystone XL pipeline.

• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• Report: Humans near tipping point that could dramatically change Earth (CS Monitor):
  Human activity is affecting Earth in many ways, but a new study suggests that continued population growth and its impact on climate and ecology could trigger a more profound chain reaction of effects within little more than a decade.
• VIDEO: James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change (TED Talks):
  Top climate scientist James Hansen tells the story of his involvement in the science of and debate over global climate change. In doing so he outlines the overwhelming evidence that change is happening and why that makes him deeply worried about the future.
• VIDEO ANIMATION: Time history of atmospheric CO2 (NOAA Carbon Tracker YouTube channel):
• VIDEO: Animation Charts Modern Global Warming (NYT Green)
• Must-Read: Economist William Nordhaus Slams Global Warming Deniers, Explains Cost of Delay is $4 Trillion (Climate Progress):
  Nordhaus’s blunt piece – “Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong” – is worth reading because he is no climate hawk.
  …
  “The skeptics’ summary is based on poor analysis and on an incorrect reading of the results.”
• Part 1: The brutal logic of climate change (David Roberts, Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It’s simple: If there is to be any hope of avoiding civilization-threatening climate disruption, the U.S. and other nations must act immediately and aggressively on an unprecedented scale. That means moving to emergency footing. War footing. “Hitler is on the march and our survival is at stake” footing. That simply won’t be possible unless a critical mass of people are on board. It’s not the kind of thing you can sneak in incrementally.

  It is unpleasant to talk like this. People don’t want to hear it.

• Part 2: The brutal logic of climate change mitigation (David Roberts, Grist)
• How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane: A short list of relatively simple actions taken to reduce greenhouse gases other than CO2 could help put the brakes on global warming–if implemented globally (Scientific American)
• Climate Scientists Rebuke Rupert Murdoch: WSJ Denier Op-Ed Like ‘Dentists Practicing Cardiology’ (Think Progress Green)
• Saudi Oil Minister Calls Global Warming “Humanity’s Most Pressing Concern” (Climate Progress):
  “We know that pumping oil out of the ground does not create many jobs. It does not foster an entrepreneurial spirit, nor does it sharpen critical faculties.”
• VIDEO: Behold: The World’s First 24/7 Solar Plant is Up and Running (Treehugger)
• World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns: If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be “lost for ever”, according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure.
  …
  “The door is closing,” Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. “I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever.”
• Concise Overview: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events (Real Climate)
• READ the IPCC Report: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)
• No, global warming hasn’t stopped (New Scientist)
• Top UN Climate Official Blasts U.S. Climate Policy: Americans Must Realize “This Is Their Future They’re Compromising” (Think Progress Green)
• VIDEO: Climate Scientists Michael Mann on “A Look Into Our Climate: Past To Present To Future” (TEDx, YouTube)
• Earth’s Plant Growth Fell Because of Climate Change, Study Finds (NYT Green)
• Heads in the Sand: Warning: “Climate change is occurring “¦ and poses significant risks to humans and the environment,” reports the National Academy of Sciences. As climate-change science moves in one direction, Republicans in Congress are moving in another. Why?
  (National Journal) [emphasis added]:
  Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, says there’s no question that the influence of his group and others like it has been instrumental in the rise of Republican candidates who question or deny climate science. “If you look at where the situation was three years ago and where it is today, there’s been a dramatic turnaround. Most of these candidates have figured out that the science has become political,” he said.
  …
  Groups like Americans for Prosperity have done it.“