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(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: The climate action legacy of Nelson Mandela; Historic water compact in the volatile Middle East; Air pollution linked to autism; Water pollution linked to miscarriages; PLUS: Canada is claiming the North Pole because… drill baby drill … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Arctic warming drives more extreme summer heat waves, droughts & deluges, study finds; Ask Ft. Worth why so many towns are banning fracking; Falling stars: mystery disease killing starfish; Mounting evidence against BPA; EPA chief visits China amid record air pollution; TransCanada oil begins flowing through southern Keystone XL; Wind farms allowed to kill eagles for 30 years; New greenhouse gas discovered, 7k times more potent than CO2; CA releases plan for massive water tunnel … PLUS: Heart of gold: Neil Young helps bankroll First Nation’s tar sands battle … and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- VIDEO: “A Case For Climate Engineering” with author David Keith (The Colbert Report)
- Wild Weather across U.S., U.K., E.U.:
- New Round of Snow and Ice for the U.S.; Extreme Warmth in Alaska (Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground)
- Cold, Ice, and Snow Assault U.S.; Windstorm Xaver Kills 6 in Europe (Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground)
- Mighty North Sea Storm Xaver Battering Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands
- Brrrr! -135.8°F Measured at Earth’s New Coldest Spot (Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground)
- VIDEO: Mandela: “It always seems impossible until its done.” (350.org)
- Nelson Mandela’s Climate Action Legacy:
- VIDEO: “A Giant Of History:†President Obama Eulogizes Nelson Mandela At Memorial (Global Grind)
- The Elders: Independent global elders working together for peace and human rights (The Elders.org)
- Nelson Mandela’s legacy to climate change activists (RTCC)
- Nelson Mandela’s Legacy for Climate Hawks: ‘It Always Seems Impossible Until It’s Done’ (Climate Progress):
Nelson Mandela, who died yesterday at age 95, leaves two legacies for climate hawks — the necessity of persistence and the value of divestment.
- Nelson Mandela and the spiritual legacy of divestment (Washington Post):
Today, a new divestment movement is gaining momentum on college campuses in the U.S. “borrowing tactics from the 1980s anti-apartheid campaign and using them against oil, gas and coal companies to fight climate change.â€
- Remembering Nelson Mandela and His Fight for Climate Justice (Grist) [emphasis added]:
Mandela … was fully aware of how global warming had already been causing havoc on his continent, destroying through oppressive heat what Europeans hadn’t already decimated through the oppressive regimes of slavery, colonization, and apartheid.
- AUDIO: Former President Of Ireland Remembers Nelson Mandela (WBUR):
“Why is it that the world has almost stopped still at the death of one man? Because he represents the values that we know would be so much better for us, and that we would live in greater peace and harmony and development if we would abide by those.
- Nelson Mandela Leads Global Elders Coalition to Halt Climate Change (Pan Africa News, Nov. 2009)
- Meet the Elders’: Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Muhammad Yunus and Many More (ABC News, July 2007)
- Historic Water Compact in Middle East:
- Middle East water deal brings Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline one step closer (Reuters)
- Israel, Jordan, PA sign trilateral agreements to ‘swap’ and share water (Jerusalem Post)
- Israel claims ‘historic’ water agreement will save Dead Sea (UK Telegraph)
- Air Pollution Exposure Linked to Autism — Again:
- Air pollution causes autism, study finds (RTCC):
The study, due to be published in the January edition of Epidemiology, shows that exposure to air pollution heightens the risk that those who already carry the autism gene will develop the disability.
- Genes and air pollution combine to increase autism risk (Medical News Today)
- Lead Contamination Linked to Miscarriages:
- Increase in miscarriages coincided with high levels of lead in D.C. water, study finds (Washington Post):
The increase in fetal deaths was an anomalous spike for the District, and the rate of women losing advanced pregnancies returned to average levels in 2004. That is the year that a Washington Post story alerted the public to the widespread lead problem in tap water, and federal health officials began urging children and pregnant women to instead drink filtered or bottled water.
- Canada Moves To Claim North Pole:
- Fight heats up over future control of the North Pole (E & E News)
- Canada to make territorial claim for North Pole after mapping complete (Edmonton Journal)
- Canada to claim north pole as its own (Guardian UK)
- Canada To Claim North Pole, And The Oil And Gas Beneath (Climate Progress)
- VIDEO: ‘This is not a race’: Baird defends delay in making claim for North Pole (CTV News)
- VIDEO: Arctic race: Why Harper wants to call dibs on the North Pole (CTV News)
Canada says it will try to extend its territorial claims in the Arctic to include the North Pole, although it hasn’t yet fully mapped the area, doesn’t have the scientific evidence to back the claim and faces major diplomatic hurdles.
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Arctic Warming Drives More Extreme Summer Heat Waves, Droughts And Deluges, Study Finds (Climate Progress):
Scientists predicted a decade ago that Arctic ice loss would shift storm tracks and bring on worse western droughts of the kind we are now seeing. Recent studies find that Arctic sea ice loss may well usher changes in the jet stream that lead to more U.S. extreme weather events.
- Heart of gold: Neil Young helps bankroll First Nation’s oilsands battle (Edmonton Journal):
“During the visit, he asked how we were going to fight all of this and said he thought he could help us financially and create awareness about what we are doing,†Deranger said. “Then he suggested that perhaps he could do a benefit concert.â€
- Why Are So Many Towns Are Banning Fracking? Ask Fort Worth (Climate Progress):
“Fort Worth has been fracked to capacity,†resident Don Young told DeSmog Blog. “There is no turning back. Some days the air is so bad you can’t see downtown.â€
- Falling Stars: Starfish Dying From Mysterious “Disintegrating†Disease (TIME Magazine):
“The spatial extent is unprecedented,†says Pete Raimondi, chair of the ecology and evolutionary biology department at UC Santa Cruz, which monitors starfish populations on the West Coast. “If it’s as extensive as it looks like it is, then we’re talking about a loss of millions and millions.â€
- BPA is still everywhere, and mounting evidence suggests harmful effects (Washington Post)
- Six good reasons to watch the Supreme Court’s interstate air pollution case (Grist)
- EPA chief visiting China amid record air pollution (The Hill’s e2 Wire)
- TransCanada says oil has begun to flow on southern leg of Keystone XL (Canadian Press)
- Feds will let wind farms kill eagles for 30 years (Grist)
- Newly discovered greenhouse gas ‘7,000 times more powerful than CO2’ (Guardian UK): Perfluorotributylamine is an unregulated, long-living industrial chemical that breaks all records for potential climate impacts
- US Navy predicts summer ice free Arctic by 2016 (Guardian UK)
- Delta water tunnel plan presents California with tough choices (Sacramento Bee):
A formal draft of the $25 billion Bay Delta Conservation Plan was released to the public Monday, raising many questions about river flows, wildlife habitat and the future of rural towns in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
- More Than 350 U.S. Coal Plants Are No Longer Cost-Effective (Climate Progress)
- ‘Let them eat coal’: Why cheap, dirty fuels aren’t a meal ticket for developing countries (Grist)
- Lake Superior is heating up faster than any other lake on Earth (Michigan Publi Radio)
- Just in Time for Black Friday: NRDC’s Green Electronics Holiday Shopping Guide 2013 (NRDC)
- Living Green’s Green Gadget Gift Guide (Living Green)
- AUDIO: KPFK ‘BradCast’: Dr. Michael Mann, the ‘Hockey Stick Graph’ and His Report from the Front Lines (and Very Center) of the Climate Wars (The BRAD BLOG)
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
Hey Desi, have you seen this:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/largest-producers-industrial-carbon-emissions.html
Yes, we reported that report when it first came out. Rather eye-opening when put into that context, eh? Grist’s follow-up also opens up an interesting line of inquiry:
Can you sue Chevron and Exxon for screwing up the climate?
How about this idea for climate change negotiations:
The richer/established countries do not want to pay more for carbon emissions because they are worried they will no longer maintain economic advantage if they must pay more than developing countries. Developing countries claim that the richer countries did most of the polluting, so why should their economic development be compromised for something they have not done much to affect.
How about a shifting carbon scale over time? In the first years the established countries pay more per tonne than the developing countries but after a certain time frame (let’s say 20 years) the emission restrictions/payments would be equal per tonne to all countries. The established countries would pay for their past contributions, but the developing countries would see that there is a time frame at which it would be beneficial to move toward more renewable resources.