‘Green News Report’ – May 20, 2014

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: CA Governor warns climate change is here, and getting very expensive; Biblical flooding in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia; Insurance Co. sues Chicago for failing to prepare for climate change; PLUS: India’s new PM pledges solar across the nation… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Drought, hurricanes bigger threat to businesses; Antarctica, Greenland melting faster than thought; US historical sites threatened by rising sea levels; Coal Ash Sludge In The Dan River Is Finally Getting Vacuumed Up; NC GOP wants to make fracking chemical disclures a felony; ‘CNN is the Wal-mart of news’; Appeals court rejects BP’s request to reduce settlement payments for oil spill … PLUS: Creationists now losing their minds because Neil deGrasse Tyson explained electricity … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Biblical Rains & Flooding in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia:
• Flood Danger Persists in Serbia, Threatening Power Plant (NY Times)
• Floods threaten power plant, land mines in Balkans (AP)
• Balkan Floods: appeal for aid as rescues continue (BBC)
• Calfornia Governor: Climate Change Is Here And It’s Expensive:
• ‘This Week’: California Fire Emergency (ABC This Week):
  We’re going to deal with nature as best we can, but humanity is on a collision course with nature and we’re just going to have to adapt to it in the best way we can. In California, we’re not only adapting, but we’re taking steps to reduce our greenhouse gases in a way that I think exceeds any other state in the country. And we’ll do more. In the meantime, all we can do is fight all these damn fires.
• Gov. Jerry Brown: California at ‘epicenter’ of climate change (AP)
• The Massive US Drought: Maps shows record drought in the West isn’t going away anytime soon (Vox Media)
• 100 Percent of California Now in Highest Stages of Drought (Climate Central)
• Firefighting capacity for wildfires curbed by funding cuts, officials say (Washington Post)
• The California Drought May Mean More Earthquakes (Mother Jones):
  Long-term withdrawal of water in the San Joaquin Valley is leading to a decrease of stress on the San Andreas fault, and this promotes earthquakes.
• Studies: Wildfires worse due to global warming (AP)
• Insurance Company Sues Chicago For Not Preparing For Climate Change:
• Insurance company sues Ill. cities for climate damage (E & E News):
  [Farmers Insurance] company filed nine class-action lawsuits last month alleging that dozens of Chicago-area municipalities are responsible for the damage caused by a two-day downpour last year in April. The company claims that local officials are aware that climate change is causing heavier rainfalls but failed to prevent sewage backups in more than 600 homes by draining water from the region’s system of tunnels and retention basins before the storm.
• Climate change: Get ready or get sued (Washington Post)
• In Landmark Class Action, Farmers Insurance Sues Local Governments For Ignoring Climate Change (Climate Progress)
• India’s New Prime Minister Promises Electricity For All — Thru Solar:
• Will India’s new PM Modi be a climate change champion? (RTCC)
• India’s New Leadership: 400 Million People Will Have Power In 5 Years With The Help Of Solar (Climate Progress):
  “Administration after administration has promised rural Indians power since independence and failed,” Justin Guay, associate director of the International Climate Program at the Sierra Club, told ThinkProgress. “And they have failed because they want to build huge power plants and extend the grid. Today in India there are independent companies working around a grid and government that don’t function and pursuing a bottom-up approach with renewable energy.” Modi’s election comes with a plethora of social, environmental, and human rights concerns, but Guay said that the “one silver lining with Modi is that he is huge champion for solar.”

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

• Creationists now losing their minds because Neil deGrasse Tyson explained electricity: We wish we were joking . (Salon)
• The Big Melt: Antarctica, Greenland Melting Faster Than Thought: (NY Times):
  [T]hese glaciers are just the latest signs that the thawing of earth’s icy regions is accelerating. While some glaciers are holding steady or even growing slightly, most are shrinking, and scientists believe they will continue to melt until greenhouse gas emissions are reined in.
• History Under Water: Climate Change Imperils Historic, Cultural Sites (Hufffington Post Green)
• Jane Kleeb vs. the Keystone Pipeline (NY Times):
  A firebrand organizer has convinced conservative Nebraska farmers to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline because they will bear the brunt of Canada’s energy expansion. It’s about local environmental impacts rather than climate change.
• Children’s lead levels ‘significantly’ higher in Kansas town: (AP):
  Recent lead levels among children tested in a southeast Kansas town that was home to a zinc smelter were ‘significantly’ higher than statewide and national levels, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
• AUDIO: Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Miles O’Brien slam CNN as the ‘Wal-Mart of journalism’ (Raw Story)
• North Carolina GOP Pushes Unprecedented Bill to Jail Anyone Who Discloses Fracking Chemicals (Mother Jones):
  The bill also allows companies that own the chemical information to require emergency responders to sign a confidentiality agreement. And it’s not clear what the penalty would be for a health care worker or fire chief who spoke about their experiences with chemical accidents to colleagues.
• Drought, Hurricane Bigger Threat to World’s Top Companies (Bloomberg News)
• The Coal Ash Sludge In The Dan River Is Finally Getting Vacuumed Up (Climate Progress)
• Fractured North Carolina: (Fayetteville Observer):
  As North Carolina moves to tap potentially rich natural gas reserves, some warn that the drilling process is fraught with environmental hazards. The Fayetteville Observer explores the debate, and how this new industry could transform the Cape Fear region, in a six-day series this week.
• Court declines BP’s request to review settlement deal for Gulf oil spill: (NY Times):
  A federal appeals court has refused to reconsider a major decision in the long-running battle over the 2010 gulf oil spill, leaving in place an earlier ruling that forces the British oil company BP to pay some businesses for economic damages without the businesses having to prove the losses were directly caused by the spill.
• VIDEO: Colbert Embraces Conservative Solution to Climate Change: ‘F*ck It’ (The Colbert Report)
• End fossil fuel burning, save $71 trillion – and preserve civilization as we know it (Grist) [emphasis added]:
  It would cost the world $44 trillion to end our fossil fuel addiction by 2050 and switch to clean energy. Worse, this figure is $8 trillion higher than the IEA’s last estimate, published two years ago…. And now the good news: We can save $115 trillion in fuel costs by 2050 if we move away from dirty energy, making for net savings of $71 trillion.
• How to Solve Global Warming: It’s the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
  Restraining global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius will require changing how the world produces and uses energy to power its cities and factories, heats and cools buildings, as well as moves people and goods in airplanes, trains, cars, ships and trucks, according to the IPCC. Changes are required not just in technology, but also in people’s behavior.

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).