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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: On the one hand, Obama moves the environmental ball forward — on the other hand… not so much; Oil leak in CO; Fish populations rebound (thanks, Big Government!); BP trial update; Abu Dhabi opens world’s largest solar plant; Power failure at stricken Fukushima nuke plant; PLUS: Wind turbine sickness caused by anti-wind propaganda … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report

with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen

3/19/2013

‘Green News Report’ – March 19, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...   · · · · ·   ‘Green News Report’ – March 19, 2013  |  With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): High-resolution charts show carbon impacts skyrocketing; Democratic senators intro legislation to end oil industry tax breaks; March’s extreme weather swings; Emergency cleanup at abandoned gold mine; Canada scientists muzzled by Harper Administration; Debunking the Daily Mail –again; Days of promise fade for ethanol … PLUS: “De-extinction”: Why we shouldn’t bring back extinct species from the dead … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• GOP Congressman: Global Warming a Myth Because It Was Cold at Obama’s Inauguration (The BRAD BLOG)
• Parachute Creek spill continues uncontained; cause, source unknown (Denver Post)
• Interior Dept Spanks Shell’s Arctic Adventure: We Really Really Mean It This Time
• Interior Dept. Warns Shell on Arctic Drilling (NY Times):
  “Shell screwed up in 2012 and we’re not going to let them screw up whenever their pause is removed unless they have these systems in place,” Mr. Salazar said in a news briefing Thursday.
• BP Oil Spill Trial: Transocean Says ‘Not Our Fault’
• Transocean CEO testifies about safety culture leading to BP oil spill (NOLA.com):
  The head of Transocean Ltd., which leased its Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and supplied its crew to BP to drill the ill-fated Macondo well, testified Tuesday that the rig’s crew members “should have done more” to recognize problem signs pointing to a potential blowout during drilling and ordered the operation shut down. But he said the crew’s failure was caused by following the improper recommendations of BP officials overseeing the operation.
• Transocean to pay $1.4B fine for Gulf oil spill (CNN)
• The Oil Leak in the Gulf We’re Not Supposed to Know About (Triple Pundit)
• Power Failure Scare at Fukushima:
• Power restored at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant (South China Morning Post):
  Tepco, which has faced repeated cover-up scandals, was slammed by local media Tuesday for waiting hours to disclose the blackout. [Company spokesman Masayuki] Ono acknowledged the plant was vulnerable. “Fukushima Dai-ichi still runs on makeshift equipment, and we are trying to switch to something more permanent and dependable, which is more desirable,” he said. “Considering the equipment situation, we may be pushing a little too hard.”
• Fukushima loses cooling power: No electricity to pumps that feed ponds where spent nuclear fuel rods must be kept underwater at a safe temperature (Guardian UK)
• Power outage hits Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant (AP):
  The utility said the nuclear fuel stored in the pools will remain safe for at least four days without fresh cooling water.
• More U.S. military join lawsuit over Fukushima exposure (CNN)
• U.S. Sailors Sue Japan Nuclear Plant Owner, Say Fukushima Disaster Made Them Sick (Huffington Post)
• Abu Dhabi Opens World’s Largest Solar Thermal Plant::
• VIDEO: Largest concentrated solar power plant opens in Abu Dhabi (BBC)
• Flush With Oil, Abu Dhabi Opens World’s Largest Solar Plant (NPR)
• Total, Abengoa See Mideast Solar Boom as Largest Generator Opens (Bloomberg News):
  Adding clean-power generators may help oil-rich nations in the region to conserve more of their crude and gas for export, reducing their use of the fuels to generate power that’s sold at subsidized prices.
• Good News: [Some] Fish Populations in the United States Rebound (NY Times)
• Wind Turbine Sickness Caused by Anti-Wind Propaganda:
• Wind Turbine Syndrome is Bullshit (ClimateCrocks.com) [emphasis added]:
  [In one study, the] researchers then told each person they were going to be exposed to two 10-minute periods of infrasound in a special acoustic room when, in fact, for one of those periods they would be exposed to no sound at all, or “sham infrasound” as the researchers describe it. So what happened?
• How the power of suggestion generates wind farm symptoms (The Conversation)
• Obama Proposes $2b ‘Energy Security Trust’:
• VIDEO: President Obama on Energy Issues at Argonne National Labs (C-span.org):



• Obama at Argonne: Energy Security Trust fact sheets (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Obama wants $2 billion to get the U.S. off oil. Will Congress agree? (Washington Post)
• A Closer Look at Obama’s Plan to Pay for Energy Research With Drilling Fees (NYT Dot Earth)
• Why the EPA May Delay Emissions Rules For Power Plants: (Washington Post):
  “A lot of people, myself included, think this approach is almost certain to get struck down in court,” says Jeffrey Holmstead, an energy-industry attorney at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP who headed up the EPA’s air division during the Bush administration.
• Obama Will Use Nixon-Era Law to Fight Climate Change (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
  President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they should consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways. The result could be significant delays for natural gas- export facilities, ports for coal sales to Asia, and even new forest roads, industry lobbyists warn.

  “It’s got us very freaked out,” said Ross Eisenberg, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers…

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

• Must-See High-Resolution Charts: ‘Carbon Pollution Set To End Era Of Stable Climate’ (Climate Progress)
• Days of Promise Fade for Ethanol (NY Times):
  Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s ethanol plants have stopped production over the past year, in part because the drought that has ravaged much of the nation’s crops pushed commodity prices so high that ethanol has become too expensive to produce.
• Feinstein, Nelson want to limit oil company tax and royalty breaks (NOLA.com) [emphasis added]:
  Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill Monday that would end federal incentives that encourage the waiving of royalty payments to encourage deep-water drilling. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced a bill at the same time that would change the tax code to deny tax deductions from oil-spill related expenses including legal, clean-up and other costs.
• Don’t Bring Back the Saber-Toothed Tiger: How de-extinction could derail the conservation movement. (Slate) [emphasis added]:
  “‘What if DNA could be used to bring a species back?‘ I felt a tsunami of awe and excitement barrel through the audience. This was as exciting as his declaration about the digital world in 1984 when he said, ‘Information wants to be free.’ “
• From Heat Wave to Snowstorms, March Goes to Extremes (Climate Central)
• Canada: Ottawa seeks emergency cleanup of abandoned northern mine (CTV News):
  Federal officials are scrambling to clean up a crumbling, abandoned northern gold mine that is in imminent danger of releasing massive amounts of arsenic, asbestos and other toxins.
• Canada: Harper government’s reckless and undemocratic muzzling of scientists (Toronto Star):
  It has been a year since Nature, one of the world’s leading scientific journals, chided the federal Conservatives for their antagonism to openness and declared, “It is time for the Canadian government to set its scientists free.”
• Sen. Roy Blunt placing a hold on Obama’s EPA nominee (LA Times):
  Blunt said the hold would remain in place until the Obama administration issued a timeline for release of a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid Floodway Project.
• Debunker: How the Daily Mail’s David Rose Hides the Rise in Global Warming (Skeptical Science)
• VIDEO: Finding No Evidence Of A “War On Coal,” Fox Cries Cover-Up (Media Matters)

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• New Research: World on Track for Climate Disaster:
• COVER STORY: It’s Global Warming, Stupid (Businessweek):
  If all that doesn’t impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statistics for profit.
• Ocean Acidification: Animals are already dissolving in Southern Ocean (New Scientist)
• Global warming targets further out of reach, UN says (Phys.org):
  Based on current pledges, global average temperatures could rise by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) this century — way above the two degrees Celsius being targeted, said a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
• Essential Climate Science Background:
• Skeptical Science: Get the FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Arguments
• 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)
• Thinking Big: NREL Study Shows 80 Percent Renewables Possible By 2050 (Climate Progress)
• 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. …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)
• 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 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)
• The Real Global Warming Signal (Tamino)