‘Green News Report’ – November 5, 2013

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Climate scientists go nuclear; Coal spills & kills; Obama announces major new climate action; UN’s latest warning; PLUS: Germany breaks its own clean energy record — again … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Video: Why GMO labeling is a ‘Story of Solutions’; Britain’s new flood protection plan is to surrender to the ocean; Antibiotic resistance spreads to birds, wildlife; Even LBJ knew about climate change; The secret, dirty cost of ethanol; Oops: carbon capture and storage causes earthquakes; US natural gas reserves wildly overestimated; Facial scrub plastic micro-beads polluting Great Lakes … PLUS: The caveman dilemma: Why we take such lousy care of ourselves and our planet … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Remember, Remember the 5th of November: Election Day Environment:
• A Climate Activist’s Guide To Election Day 2013 (Climate Progress)
• Out-Of-State Cash Drives Washington State Ballot Initiatives (Seattle Times)
• Boulder, Colorado Faces Key Vote In Fight Against Carbon Pollution (Climate Progress)
• It’s Election Day, and the Koch brothers have more votes than you do (Grist)
• Obama’s Next Big Climate Action:
• READ IT: Executive Order — Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change (White House.gov)
• Obama asks federal agencies to ‘prepare’ for climate change. Here’s what that means. (Washington Post):
  1) Federal infrastructure spending will have to take climate into account.
  …2) Water- and land- management will get revamped.
  …3) The federal government will try to provide better data on what climate impacts are actually coming.
  …There are also a few other bureaucratic aspects of the memo, like the creation of a new interagency “Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience” and a task force with state and local leaders.
• Obama Executive Order on climate change preparedness (Part 1) — a long-overdue step forward (Climate Science Watch)
• Obama Executive Order on climate change preparedness (Part 2) (Climate Science Watch)
• Climate change task force members aim to make federal-state preparedness more effective (E & E News)
• VIDEO: Tucker Carlson: Obama Is Trying To ‘Single-Handedly Prevent Hurricanes’ (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  Though national figures like Carlson try to create doubt about the reality of human-caused climate change, local politicians, including Republicans, are becoming increasingly aware of the risks posed to their communities.
  …
  Resilience is also a cost-saving measure. A study prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) found that every $1 spent on resilience saves $4 in disaster recovery.
• UN Warns Time Running Out to Address Climate Change “Emissions Gap”:
• READ IT: The Emissions Gap Report 2013 (UN Environment Programme)
• United Nations Group Warns on Emissions (NY Times):
  Major polluters must immediately begin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the rise in global temperatures is to be held in check, or else a higher price will have to be paid later, according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Program.
• Climate change draft report predicts war, heat waves, starvation (CBC Canada): ‘Climate change threatens our health, land, food and water security’
• Global Carbon budget to 2100 will be used by 2034 according to PwC analysis (PriceWaterhouseCoopers)
• Kyoto Veterans Say Global Warming Goal Slipping Away (Bloomberg)
• Climate Scientists Go Nuclear:
• Prominent Climate Scientists Go Nuclear (The BRAD BLOG):
  “We appreciate your organization’s concern about global warming, and your advocacy of renewable energy. But continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity’s ability to avoid dangerous climate change.
  …
  While it may be theoretically possible to stabilize the climate without nuclear power, in the real world there is no credible path to climate stabilization that does not include a substantial role for nuclear power.”
• To Those Who Want To See Nuclear Power Play A Bigger Role In Climate Action (Joe Romm, Climate Progress):
  Who killed nuclear power? Hint: It’s not the people who actively supported placing a high and rising price on carbon pollution….While solar power and wind power continue to march down the experience curve to ever lower costs — solar panels have seen a staggering 99% drop in cost since 1977 — nuclear power has been heading in the opposite direction.
• Critics Blast Climate Scientists Going To Bat for Nuclear Power (Common Dreams): If these people think nuclear energy is part of a viable solution, they ‘should go to Fukushima
• Top climate scientists ask environmentalists to support nuclear power in climate battle (Washington Post)
• Spanish Researchers Debunk Wind Energy Myth Showing Renewables Capable of Replacing Fossil Fuels (EcoWatch)
• VIDEO: Stanford Professor on Letterman: Powering Entire World on Renewable Energy No Problem (EcoWatch):
  Jacobson said a good starting point would be in the U.S., where he believes the world’s largest untapped resource of offshore wind energy exists on the East Coast. Jacobson, the director of Stanford’s Atmosphere/Energy program, told the audience that he is working on “science-based plans to eliminate global warming” because 2.5 million to 4 million deaths take place each year due to air pollution.



• Coal Spills & Kills:
• Critics Lash Out at Government Response To Coal Mine Spill Into Athabasca (Edmonton Journal)
• Coal Mine Spill: Alberta Pit Failure Dumps Plume Of Refuse Into Athabasca River (Huffington Post Green)
• Another coal miner dies on the job (Ken Ward, Coal Tattoo)
• The coal industry’s ‘century of denial’ on black lung disease (Coal Tattoo)
• People Who Live Downwind Of Alberta’s Oil And Tar Sands Operations Are Getting Blood Cancer (Climate Progress)
• Germany Breaks Renewable Energy Record AGAIN — 59% Renewable Generation:
• Germany Hits 59% Renewable Peak, Grid Does Not Explode (GreenTech Media)
• Solar storage plant Gemasolar sets 36-day record for 24/7 output (Renew Economy):
  Torresol said in a statement marking the anniversary that the plant has exceeded the expected results and has demonstrated the sturdiness of the design. Producing energy 24/7 for 36 consecutive days from solar energy “is something that no other plant has performed so far.”
• World’s Largest Solar Thermal Plant With Storage Comes Online in U.S. (Clean Technica)

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

• The caveman dilemma: Why we take such lousy care of ourselves and our planet (Grist):
  We’re cavemen come to live in the city. Our bodies just aren’t adapted for this stuff.
• Britain’s New Flood Protection Plan: Surrender To The Ocean (Climate Progress)
• Flying the coop: Antibiotic resistance spreads to birds & wildlife: (Environmental Health News):
  Julie Ellis unfurled a long, white tarp under a stand of trees near Coes Pond where hundreds of crows roost. Her mission: to collect as much bird poop as possible. Back in the laboratory, Ellis’ colleagues combed through the feces. Testing its bacteria, they discovered something unusual — genes that make the crows resistant to antibiotics.
• Even LBJ knew about climate change: (Grinzo.com):
  “Through his worldwide civilization, Man is unwittingly conducting a vast geophysical experiment. Within a few generations he is burning the fossil fuels that slowly accumulated in the earth over the past 500 million years. The CO2 produced by this combustion is being injected into the atmosphere; about half of it remains there. The estimated recoverable reserves of fossil fuels are sufficient to produce nearly a 200% increase in the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere.

  By the year 2000 the increase in atmospheric CO2 will be close to 25%. This may be sufficient to produce measurable and perhaps marked changes in climate, and will almost certainly cause significant changes in the temperature and other properties of the stratosphere.”

• Carbon Capture and Storage Can Cause Earthquakes, Making It ‘A Risky And Likely Unsuccessful Strategy’ (Climate Progress)
• Ethanol: The secret, dirty cost of green power push (AP Opinion):
  [W]hen President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, Bush predicted it would make the country “stronger, cleaner and more secure.” But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today.
• Fracking and Red Queen Syndrome (Climate Crocks):
  Red Queen Syndrome: “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” … Many wells behind the energy gush are quickly losing productivity, and some areas could hit peak levels sooner than the U.S. government expects, according to analyses presented last week at a Geological Society of America meeting in Denver.
• VIDEO: Why GMO labeling is a ‘Story of Solutions’ (Green Biz):
  “The Story of Solutions” offers a simple, profound message about the choices we face, and concrete ideas for how to advance a healthier, sustainable economy. Best of all, the film leaves us with a tool we can use to evaluate our own work in the world, and ask the honest question: Am I on the right track?
• This college turned its football field into an organic farm (Grist)
• Study Shows Plastic Microbeads in Facial Scrubs Pollute Great Lakes (EcoWatch)
• Why the Climate Corporation Sold Itself to Monsanto (New Yorker):
  The Climate Corporation, which has nearly two hundred scientists trying to make sense of fifty terabytes of weather data every day, will continue to operate as an independent unit, but I was surprised at Friedberg’s decision, because many food activists consider Monsanto to be the definitively evil corporation.
• Naomi Klein: How science is telling us all to revolt (New Statesman):
  Is our relentless quest for economic growth killing the planet? Climate scientists have seen the data – and they are coming to some incendiary conclusions.
• Coal industry’s go-to law firm withheld evidence of black lung, at expense of sick miners (Center for Public Integrity)
• >Leaked Documents Reveal the Secret Finances of a Pro-Industry Science Group (Mother Jones):
  Attacking the science behind environmental health and safety rules has long been an industry tactic. The American Council on Science and Health, a leader of the charge, has for years claimed that it is not an industry shill but an independent science organization. But it doesn’t disclose its funders. Now documents reveal most of its funding comes from industries who stand to profit from its claims.
• Why we don’t care about saving our grandchildren from climate change: (TIME’s Eco-Centric Blog) [emphasis added]:
  A new study shows that human beings are too selfish to endure present pain to avert future climate change. That’s why we need win-win solutions now….The Nature Climate Change study also underscores why “win-win” climate policies – like innovation investments that can lead directly to cheap clean energy, rather than policies that make dirty energy more expensive – are likely to be the most effective ones.

FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• Video Proof That Global Warming is a ‘Hoax’!: NASA Temperature Data 1888-2011 (The BRAD BLOG):



• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).