‘Green News Report’ – June 24, 2014

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: U.S. Supreme Court upholds EPA authority on greenhouse gas emissions — again; It’s official – May 2014 was the hottest May on record; Canada’s First Nations vote to fight the other tar sands pipeline; PLUS: Titans of Wall Street warn climate change is really, really expensive … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): How Rupert Murdoch created the world’s newest climate change villain; Carbon tax would boost global economy up to $2.6T a year; Autism risk higher near pesticide-treated fields; Save the Bees: widespread impacts of neo-nicotinoids ‘impossible to deny; Insecticides put world food supplies at risk; Silver lining: CA drought is stopping spread of Sudden Oak Death disease; Feds failing to inspect over 1k high risk oil and gas wells …. PLUS: These maps show how many brutally hot days you will suffer when you’re old … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Climate Denial: Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) Is ‘Wrong-dorable’:
• VIDEO: Alabama’s Sen. Jeff Sessions finds himself on wrong end of ‘Daily Show’ rant (Mobile Press-Register
• VIDEO: Fox News Cites Birther To Claim NASA “Faked” Global Warming (Media Matters) [emphasis added]:
  [T]he libertarian magazine Reason noted that even climate “skeptic” blogger Anthony Watts said that Goddard made “major errors in his analysis” and criticized the implication that “numbers are being plucked out of thin air in a nefarious way.” In fact, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and NASA, which both maintain temperature records that use slightly different methods but show close agreement, have publicly documented the peer-reviewed adjustments they make to raw data.
• It’s Official: May 2014 the Hottest May Ever Recorded Globally:
• The Planet Just Had Its Warmest May On Record (Climate Progress)
• May was hottest on Earth since records began (Guardian UK):
  Average land and ocean surface temperature for May was highest ever, as 2014 shapes up to potentially be hottest year yet
• NOAA: Global Analysis, Global Highlights – May 2014 (National Climatic Data Center)
• World’s Hottest May Is Now May 2014: NOAA (Weather Channel)
• US Supreme Court RE-Re-Affirms EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
• Sorry, Conservatives. The Supreme Court Isn’t Stopping Obama’s Climate Plan.: Breaking down a less than disastrous Scalia decision.
• Supreme Court Reaffirms EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Authority, With Minor Limitation (Climate Progress)
• Justices Uphold Emission Limits on Big Industry (NY Times)
• Supreme Court decision on EPA is a mixed bag (MSNBC) [emphasis added]:
  The high court ruled Monday that the EPA could not require permits based on greenhouse gas emissions alone, but that greenhouse gasses could be considered as part of the permit process for facilities already emitting other pollutants. The decision narrows the EPA’s options for dealing with emissions that cause climate change, but the agency could still reduce such emissions through another provision of the Clean Air Act that allows the EPA to set emissions standards.
• Critics of the EPA need a new strategy, the Supreme Court makes clear (Op-ed, Washington Post)
• ‘Risky Business’ Report Warns Climate Change Inaction Will Devastate the U.S. Economy:
• Risky Business: The Economic Risks of Climate Change in the United States (RiskyBusiness.org)
• U.S. to face multibillion-dollar bill from climate change: report (Reuters)
• REPORT: Parts Of America Will Be ‘Unsuited For Outdoor Activity’ Thanks To Climate Change (Reuters)
• Money Men Bloomberg, Steyer And Paulson Tally Costs Of Climate Change In New Report (AP)
• VIDEO: ‘Risky Business’ Report Press Conference with billionaries Hank Paulson, Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer (Next Generation):



• Risky Business report urges America to secure economic future by facing up to climate change (The Climate Group)
• Climate change could cost U.S. East Coast $35 billion in 15 years The Wall Street Journal (Veeoz.com) [emphasis added]:
  Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, a hedge-fund billionaire and major Democratic donor, are linking arms Tuesday to release a report, Risky Business, that argues U.S. companies should treat climate change as any other business threat. The report, which says climate change could cost the country billions of dollars over the next two decades, is the product of a bipartisan group of former cabinet officers, lawmakers, corporate leaders and scientists. The study concludes that within the next 15 years, higher sea levels, storm surges and hurricanes could raise the annual price tag for coastal damage along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to $35 billion.
• VIDEO: Hank Paulson – ‘Climate Change Is the Enemy We All Face’ (Bloomberg News)



• Extreme Weather Is Expensive: Buffett Warning Unheeded as Catastrophe Bond Sales Climb (Bloomberg News) [emphasis added]:
  “The hurricane does not know the rate that was charged for the hurricane policy, so it’s not going to respond to how much you charge,” Buffett said at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention in Las Vegas on June 9. “And if you charge an inadequate premium, you will get creamed over time.”
• First Nations Vow To Fight Northern Gateway Pipeline:
• Canada’s indigenous: ‘We are the wall’ that the pipeline cannot pass (Al Jazeera America)
• First Nations leaders prepared to fight Northern Gateway pipeline (Toronto Globe & Mail)
• Stephen Harper’s gift to the environmental movement (Burnaby Now):
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper may not realize it, but his government’s decision to conditionally approve the Northern Gateway pipeline may be a huge gift to the very folks who are leading the charge against the pipeline ever being built.

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

• These Maps Show How Many Brutally Hot Days You Will Suffer When You’re Old (Mother Jones):
  If you’re aged 4 to 33 right now, the map above shows you how many very hot days—those with temperatures over 95 degrees Fahrenheit—you’re likely to experience by the time you’re elderly.
• How Rupert Murdoch created the world’s newest climate change villain (Salon):
  Australia was once a leader on climate action. Thanks to American conservative powerhouses, that’s no longer true.
• Widespread impacts of neo-nicotinoids ‘impssible to deny’: (BBC):
  Neonicotinoid pesticides are causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial species and are a key factor in the decline of bees, say scientists.
• Insecticides put world food supplies at risk, say scientists (Guardian UK): Regulations on pesticides have failed to prevent poisoning of almost all habitats, international team of scientists concludes
• As sea levels rise, Norfolk is sinking and planning: (NPR):
  “If there is flooding, I really want to know where it is so I can stay away,” Duffy says. “With climate change, what is the area going to look like? What are my investment opportunities?”
• Silver lining: CA drought is stopping spread of Sudden Oak Death disease (San Franisico Chronicle):
  The California drought is helping save the state’s signature tree – the mighty oak – by slowing down the spread of the plague-like disease scientists call sudden oak death.
• Autism risk higher near pesticide-treated fields, study says (Environmental Health News):
  Babies whose moms lived within a mile of crops treated with widely used pesticides were more likely to develop autism, according to new research published today.
• Feds failing to inspect over 1k high risk oil and gas wells: (Climate Desk):
  Johnson County, Wyo….ranks only 11th statewide for oil production, but it holds the number-one ranking nationwide for a more ignominious distinction: It has 249 new, high-risk oil and gas wells that the federal government has failed to inspect for compliance with safety and environmental standards.
• Why A National Carbon Tax Would Be Amazing — In Four Charts (Climate Progress)
• World Bank: Fighting Climate Change Would Boost Global Economy Up To $2.6 Trillion A Year (Climate Progress)
• Why Is A Mainstream News Company Sponsoring Climate Denial?: Hubbard Broadcasting Co-Sponsoring Heartland Institute’s Climate Conference (Media Matters)
• Why Big Oil is giving piles of money to the NRA (Grist):
  Restrictions on any land exploration is something the oil and gas industry has long opposed, says Jessica Goad from the Center for Western Priorities, a left-leaning organization based in Denver. “We’ve seen that in their opposition to national monuments, national parks, they don’t like things being off-limits.”
• Even Science Museums Being Undermined by Fossil Fuel-Funded Science Denialism (The BRAD BLOG) [emphasis added]:
  This is a pity, a disservice, and even an outrage….a 2010 survey of science museum visitors found that 73% “said that they would like to learn more about climate change and that they trusted informal science institutions more than any other source to provide that information.”
• Koch Brothers Unveil New Strategy at Big Donor Retreat (The Daily Beast):
  In the face of expanding energy regulations, stepped-up Democratic attacks and the ongoing fight over Obamacare, the billionaire Koch brothers and scores of wealthy allies have set an initial 2014 fundraising target of $290 million which should boost GOP candidates and support dozens of conservative groups-including a new energy initiative with what looks like a deregulatory, pro-consumer spin, The Daily Beast has learned.
• White House: Benefits of new rules worth more than $217B in past decade (SNL Financial Blog):
  The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ draft review of “economically significant” rules issued between October 2003 and September 2013 – those likely to have an annual effect of $100 million or more on the U.S. economy – found an overall benefit of between $217 billion and $863 billion in 2001 dollars. Meanwhile, the May 30 report estimated that the costs of the 116 major federal regulations finalized during that time period totaled between $57 billion and $84 billion.

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).