‘Green News Report’ – December 19, 2013

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Network news managed to notice extreme weather, but not climate change in 2013; Congrats, Fox ‘News’! Someone finally found fraud at the EPA!; Amnesty for the Arctic 30; Good news for Ecuadoran villagers suing Chevron; The #1 Environmental Story of the Year; PLUS: RETHINK your holidays — make ’em greener! … All that and more in our last Green News Report of the year!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Yep, we feed cows chicken poop (thanks, FDA); Pres. Eisenhower was an environmentalist (video); November 2013 warmest on record; Chevron failed to maintain SF refinery; L.A. mandates ‘cool roofs’; Japan’s battle to prove Fukushima fish are safe; Obama & climate change: the real story; BP’s oil still killing dolphins; 60 watt incandescents phased out Jan. 1 … PLUS: In the Deep South, dirty energy and disenfranchisement go hand in hand … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• FAIR Study: Corporate Media FAIL: (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  “Our study demonstrates that when weather is the news, the climate is seldom mentioned,” the organization wrote on its website. “It’s almost as if the climate and the weather were happening on two different planets.”
• Desi’s Top Environment Story of 2013: Breaching 400ppm CO2
• This Is Life in a 400 PPM World (Motherboard) [emphasis added]:
  Climate scientists found that for the first time in approximately three million years, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million… We’ve now added enough CO2 to the atmosphere to change the lives of every human on the planet. This isn’t an exaggeration.
• NASA scientists react to 400ppm CO2 (NASA.gov)
• 2013 climate year in review: ‘the heat is on. Now we must act’ (Guardian UK)
• 2013 in review: a year of fracking, wacky weather and soaring CO2 (RTCC)
• Top 10 HAPPY environmental stories of 2013 (Mongabay)
• 2013’s Most Terrifying Weather Disasters (Mother Jones)
• What A Year: 45 Fossil Fuel Disasters The Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know About (Climate Progress)
• 13 Major Clean Energy Breakthroughs Of 2013 (Climate Progress)
• Amnesty for Arctic 30? Maybe:
• AUDIO: Russia plans a Christmas present for Pussy Riot and the Arctic 30 — but is it just packaging? (PRI’s The World)
• Amnesty Bill in Russia Could Free Activists (NY Times):
  “But before having the material on paper, it is hard to be sure,” said Ivan Blokov, the Greenpeace Russia program director.
• Happy Holidays, Fox News! Someone finally found fraud at the EPA:
• VIDEO: Charlatan’s Web: Former E.P.A. official John Beale admits to lying about his C.I.A. ties, contracting malaria and serving in Vietnam. (The Daily Show)


• Victory for Ecuadoran Villagers Vs. Chevron:
• Judges re-open Chevron-Ecuador enforcement action in Canada (Reuters):
  “After all these years, the plaintiffs deserve to have the recognition and enforcement of the (Ecuadorean) judgment heard on the merits in an appropriate jurisdiction. At this juncture, Ontario is that jurisdiction,” the panel wrote in a 29-page decision.
• Significant Victory for Ecuadorians in Oil Pollution Case Against Chevron (EcoWatch)
• VIDEO: Lee Camp’s Moment of Clarity: “It’s the LACK of thought that counts” [NSFW] (LeeCamp.net)




• RETHINK: Make 2013 your greenest holidays ever!:
• With ‘furoshiki,’ you won’t need wrapping paper again (Treehugger):
  The Japanese government launched a campaign several years ago to revive furoshiki in hopes of reducing dependency on plastic bags.
• Give the Gift of Energy Efficient Gadgets: NRDC’s Green Electronics Holiday Shopping Guide 2013 (NRDC)
• Living Green’s Green Gadget Gift Guide (Living Green)
• Wrapping paper embedded with seeds lets you grow veggies (Treehugger)
• In 1912, Americans Waged War Against the Giving of Useless Xmas Gifts (Treehugger)

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

• In the Deep South, dirty energy and disenfranchisement go hand in hand (Grist):
  The southeastern U.S. is pre-1990s South Africa, and the brand of apartheid practiced here is of the energy variety. This is how environmental justice scholar Robert Bullard called it two years ago, and a report released yesterday from the NAACP pretty much confirms it.
• Climate Change: Warmest November Worldwide Since 1880 (AP):
  “How hot was November? NOAA says average global temperature, for water and land surfaces combined, was 56.6 degrees F (13.7 Celsius). It was the 37th consecutive November with above-average temperatures.
• VIDEO: Pres. Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address – Military/Industrial Complex – Part 2 (Youtube):
  As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.



• We Feed Cows Chicken Poop (Mother Jones):
  The practice isn’t just gross, it could spread mad cow disease—and yet the FDA has done nothing to stop it.
• Chevron failed to maintain equipment in California refinery fire: EPA: (AP):
  Chevron Corp. failed to maintain equipment at a California refinery and has not responded adequately to multiple airborne chemical releases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.
• Inside Japan’s battle to prove fish is safe after Fukushima nuclear disaster (CBS News)
• Los Angeles Becomes First Major City To Require ‘Cool Roofs’ (Climate Progress)
• Obama & Climate Change: The Real Story: (Bill McKibben):
  The president has said the right things about climate change – and has taken some positive steps. But we’re drilling for more oil and digging up more carbon than ever.
• Keystone XL pipeline prepares for start-up of southern section (LA Times)
• Dolphins In Louisiana’s Barataria Bay Much Sicker After BP Oil Spill: Study (Huffington Post Green)
• CA: Exide ordered to clean up toxic substances near Vernon plant: (LA Times)
• Rivers in Wintry Cities Remain Salty Year-Round (Environmental Health News)
• A bright idea – 60w & 40w incandescent lightbulbs phased out starting Jan. 2014 (MSNBC Maddowblog) [emphasis added]:
  In 2007, Congress tackled a pretty important energy bill, which included light-bulb provisions that weren’t considered controversial in the slightest… [T]he policy has been quite successful, working exactly as intended, and producing the kind of energy innovation proponents hoped to see. It was, by any fair measure, a bipartisan success story.
• A village, poisoned: the toxic trail of China’s coal industry (NPR’s Marketplace)
• Warren Buffett buys $1 billion of wind turbines, the biggest land-based wind power purchase ever (Treehugger)
• The Koch Brothers Are Still Trying to Break Wind (Op-ed, Live Science)
• Why Reddit’s Science Forum Banned Climate Deniers (Climate Progress)
• Creating A Solar Energy Bank (CleanTechnica):
  What if households could deposit excess solar output in an “energy bank”, and use it to drawn down when needed or loan energy to others.
• Drug-Resistant Bacteria on Chicken: It’s Everywhere and the Government Can’t Help (Wired)
• Meat the press: What Rolling Stone’s scary farm exposé gets right – and wrong (Grist)

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).