‘Green News Report’ – June 19, 2012

With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

Desi Doyen

June 19, 2012, 2:18pm
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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: A nuclear re-start for Japan — but also a solar revolution; Most anti-environment Congress in history, gutting everything — or at least trying to; Rio+20: UN Sustainability summit gets underway in Brazil; PLUS: Oh really, Donald Trump? OPEC is in the tank for Obama?!? …. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen 6/19/2012

‘Green News Report’ – June 19, 2012 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – June 19, 2012 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): The Great German Energy Experiment; Carbon Capture Fail: Earthquakes caused by process would defeat purpose; Massive Twitter storm against fossil fuel subsidies; Arctic sea ice death spiral 2012; San Onofre nuclear problems caused by faulty models; Global warming’s evil twin threatens West Coast fishing grounds; Debunking Fox News’ EPA drone lie; EPA: new rules on soot pollution; VA-GOP Fail: Norfolk is sinking; Another virus infects Canada’s salmon farms; CA gov seeks new restrictions on toxic flame retardants … PLUS: Pollution, Poverty, People of Color: Falling into the ‘climate gap’ … and much, MUCH more! …

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

Donald Trump: OPEC is in the tank for Obama!:

Right-Wing Media Promote Another Trump Conspiracy: Oil Edition (Media Matters.org)
Oil Prices Keep Falling, But a Strange Gap Persists (BusinessWeek)
VIDEO: Trump: Obama’s Secret Saudi Oil Deal To Win Re-Election: (Fox Nation) [emphasis added]:
DONALD TRUMP: I think Saudi Arabia is doing Obama a big fat favor. I think he asked for the favor and prices are coming down, but also the economy’s going bad so maybe it won’t help that much. but as soon as — assuming if Obama got elected, you’re going to see something with oil like you’ve never seen before, it will go through the roof. The favor will be repaid many times over.
VIDEO: Fox’s Gas Price Predictions Fall Flat (Media Matters.org)
STUDY: Media Missing The Mark On Gas Prices (Media Matters.org)
What Reporters Are Getting Wrong About Gas Prices (Media Matters.org)
VIDEO: Divided OPEC grapples with whether to cut production, prop up oil prices (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
With the global economy at a tipping point, a deeply divided Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Vienna wrangled over whether to cut production and prop up crude oil prices.

JAPAN: Nuclear Reactors to Re-Start:

Japan PM orders nuclear restart amid protests (AFP):
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Saturday received approval for the restarts from Issei Nishikawa, the pro-nuclear power governor of central Fukui prefecture, which hosts the plant.
Fukushima evacuees, citizens groups vexed by Oi restart decision (Asahi Shimbun)
Jitters as Japan decides to restart nuclear reactors: Critics of Prime Minister Noda’s decision to restart nuclear reactors in the town of Oi worry that nearby communities are unprepared to deal with a Fukushima-scale nuclear crisis. (CS Monitor)
Work begins on controversial Japan nuclear restart (AFP)
Japan to restart nuclear reactors despite widespread fear (LA Times)
Japan To Get New Atomic Regulatory Body Within Three Months (Reuters)
Businesses in push to restart more reactors (Asahi Shimbun)
Japanese authorities sat on data showing radiation spread (Reuters):
Japanese authorities failed to disclose U.S. data about the spread of radiation spewing from a crippled nuclear plant last year, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday, leaving some evacuees fleeing in the same direction as the radioactive emissions.

JAPAN Announces New Solar Revolution:

Japan Approves Renewable Subsidies In Shift From Nuclear Power (Reuters):
Japan approved on Monday incentives for renewable energy that could unleash billions of dollars in clean-energy investment and help the world’s third-biggest economy shift away from a reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster.
…
Subsidies have spurred explosive growth in renewable energy in countries such as Germany, which has nearly tripled its output in less than a decade.
Japan Poised to Become Second-Biggest Market for Solar Power (NY Times) [emphasis added]:
Japan is poised to overtake Italy and become the world’s second-biggest market for solar power, as incentives starting July 1 propel sales. It could eventually top Germany, which holds the No. 1 spot.

Industry Minister Yukio Edano on Monday set a price for solar electricity that is about triple what industrial users now pay for conventional power. That may drive at least $9.6 billion in new installations with 3.2 gigawatts of capacity, Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast. That is about equal to the output of three atomic reactors.
Solar Makers Climb After Japan Announces Subsidized Rates (Bloomberg)
Panasonic Sees Japan Share of Solar Sales Jump on Tariff (BusinessWeek):
“We expect a boom in the residential market as the FIT [feed-in tarrif] price was set at a very good level,” Kazuhiro Yoshida, who heads the Osaka-based electronics-maker’s solar business, told reporters in Tokyo today.
U.S. solar installations jump 85% in first quarter (Reuters)

Anti-Environment Week on Capitol Hill: Most Anti-Environment Congress in History

REPORT: Most Anti-Environment House Of Representatives In History Voted 109 Times To Enrich Big Oil (Climate Progress):
The House of Representatives holds the title of the most anti-environment House in congressional history. Led by Republicans, the House has voted against the environment 247 times in the last 18 months, averaging one anti-environmental vote for every day the House has been in session.
House Considers ‘Drone Zone’ Bill To Roll Back Dozens Of Environmental Laws Within 100 Miles of U.S. Borders (Climate Progress)
Hearing to revive natural-gas climate battle (The Hill’s E2 Wire)
House bill to exempt DHS from enviro regs 100 miles from border (The Hill’s E2 Wire)
IEA Report: Natural Gas Is Not The Answer To Climate Problem, Existing Cleantech Is — And It Could Save $100 Trillion By 2050 (Climate Progress):
The once staid International Energy Agency continues its string of blunt, must-read reports laying bare the reality of our climate and energy system.

Sen. James Inhofe Attempts To Block New Mercury Pollution Rules:

White House waves veto pen at measure to nix EPA pollution rules (The Hill’s E2 Wire)
They Fought The Law: Big Utilities Sue the EPA and Lobby the Senate to Stop Public Health Protection (Climate Progress):
Today more than 130 coal companies, electric utilities, trade associations, other polluting industries, and states are suing the EPA in federal court to obliterate, undermine, or delay these essential health protection standards.
Report: The Positive Outlook for Cleaner Air and Reliable Electric Service (Analysis Group):
“Americans need not compromise cleaner air for affordable, reliable electricity…”
Mayors: We’d appreciate it if coal plants stopped poisoning people with mercury, thanks (Grist):
[W]e want to express our strong support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently issued Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants (MATS). Mayors are on the front lines of protecting public health and this long overdue safeguard will reap tremendous benefits for our communities.
Think Air Quality Regulations Don’t Matter? Look at Pittsburgh in the 1940s! (Treehugger)

BRAZIL: Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development Gets Underway:

MAIN: United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (United Nations)
Factbox: The Rio+20 Development Conference (Reuters):
The conference aims to secure fresh political commitment from world leaders for “sustainable development” that takes into account economic growth, social development and environmental protection.
Rio+20 conference’s search for green solutions hampered by deep divisions: Expectations for action are low despite UN assessment that the world’s environment is declining rapidly (Guardian UK)
Rio+20 negotiators accused of strong-arm tactics (Guardian UK)
What to Expect from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 (Treehugger)
UN Envoys Plan Sustainability Goals Without Impact in Draft (Bloomberg)
VIDEO: 12-year-old whose awesome speech floored 1992 Rio Summit returns to Rio+20 as a mom (Grist)
IEA Warns of Runaway Emissions (Yale 360) [emphasis added]:
[Fatih Birol on] why the global community must take action in the next several years if it hopes to avert temperature increases that could range as high as 6 degrees Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit), way past the 2 degrees C increase that climate scientists say is a prudent upper limit.
Earth may be near tipping point, scientists warn: A group of scientists warns that population growth, climate change and environmental damage are pushing Earth toward calamitous and irreversible changes. (LA Times): [emphasis added]
A group of international scientists is sounding a global alarm, warning that population growth, climate change and environmental destruction are pushing Earth toward calamitous — and irreversible — biological changes.
Analysis: Can Economic Growth Last? (UC San Diego Dept. of Physics blog):
[T]he U.S. has expanded its use of energy at a typical rate of 2.9% per year since 1650. We learned that continuation of this energy growth rate in any form of technology leads to a thermal reckoning in just a few hundred years (not the tepid global warming, but boiling skin!). What does this say about the long-term prospects for economic growth, if anything?

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

The Great German Energy Experiment (MIT Technology Review):
Germany has decided to pursue ambitious greenhouse-gas reductions—while closing down its nuclear plants. Can a heavily industrialized country power its economy with wind turbines and solar panels? [Yes.]
Researchers say Earthquakes Would Let Stored CO2 Escape: A study by Stanford researchers says seismic risks could undermine large-scale carbon capture. (MIT Technology Review):
The oil and gas industry already uses techniques that are similar to CCS during resource extraction and wastewater disposal, and these processes are known to induce small earthquakes.
…
Zoback says the risks associated with such quakes can be managed through careful site selection, but large-scale CCS could be more problematic. “You have to be far more restrictive” when choosing a carbon dioxide repository, he explains, since the task is to “keep a buoyant fluid in place for hundreds to thousands of years.”
Activists hail success of Twitter storm against fossil fuel subsidies:
High-profile support for #endfossilfuelsubsidies campaign helps it to top trending topic in US and second place globally (Guardian UK)
Death Spiral Watch: Arctic Sea Ice Takes A Nosedive (Climate Progress):
If you want to mislead people into thinking that there is nothing weird going on in the Arctic, you have to do it during winter. In winter things almost look normal on some graphs, with gaps between trend lines and long-term averages not as ridiculously big as during spring and summer.
…
The Arctic is becoming ever more problematic for their life work, ie denying AGW could ever be a problem and thus delaying any meaningful action on mitigating the consequences of AGW. Thank God water still freezes in winter.
Faulty computer modeling caused San Onofre equipment problems (LA Times): NRC officials give their first public account of their investigation into the plant’s problems. They don’t indicate how long it is likely to remain out of service.

Global warming’s evil twin threatens West Coast fishing grounds (CS Monitor):

Within the next few decades, ocean acidification — an effect of global warming — could leave sea creatures along the West Coast unable to maintain their protective shells, according to a new study.

Reining in the rumor about EPA ‘drones’ (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:

It was a blood-boiler of a story, a menacing tale of government gone too far: The Environmental Protection Agency was spying on Midwestern farmers with the same aerial “drones” used to kill terrorists overseas…. The only trouble is, it isn’t true.
…
The hubbub over nonexistent drones provides a look at something hard to capture in American politics: the vibrant, almost viral, life cycle of a falsehood.

U.S. Proposes Tighter Rules On Soot Pollution (Reuters):

The Obama administration proposed stricter standards to control harmful soot from heavy industry on Friday, a move expected to save lives but which drew criticism from Republicans and industry worried the costs of compliance will hurt the economy.

Under a court order, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed tightening exposure to the particulate pollution that threatens the elderly, people with heart disease, and children.

VA GOP FAIL: Built on sinking ground, Norfolk tries to hold back tide amid sea-level rise (Washington Post):

The entire city is worried. Miles of waterways that add to Norfolk’s charm are also a major threat in the era of increased global warming and relative rising sea levels, as well as its odd and unique sinking ground.

Sea sick: Another virus crashes Canada’s salmon farms (Grist)

California Gov. Brown seeks new regulations for fire retardants (McClatchy News Service):

“Toxic flame retardants are found in everything from high chairs to couches and a growing body of evidence suggests that these chemicals harm human health and the environment,” the Democratic governor said in a prepared statement. “We must find better ways to meet fire safety standards by reducing and eliminating — wherever possible — dangerous chemicals.”

Distorting science: Makers of flame retardants manipulate research findings to back their products, downplay health risks (Chicago Tribune: Special Series on Flame-Retardants)

Poll: Independents — and Even Republicans — are Still Concerned About Global Warming and Overwhelmingly Support Clean Energy Development (Climate Progress)

Pollution, Poverty, People of Color: Falling into the ‘climate gap’ : Communities across the US face environmental injustices (Environmental Health News):

Climate change is adding a new dimension to the three-decades-old environmental justice movement. As the effects of global warming become more evident, disaster planners and community activists are beginning to acknowledge that class disparities will come with a changing climate here in the United States, just as they will in developing countries.

Essential Climate Science Findings:

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.“