‘Green News Report’ – July 1, 2014

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Big Coal baron says Obama’s ‘evil’, attacks wildly popular new EPA emissions standards; CNBC busted seeking climate change deniers; PLUS: Acting on climate and clean energy would boost global economy by $3 trillion dollars, finds World Bank … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Voters more likely to back climate-friendly candidates; Plastic debris widespread on ocean surface; Hanford nuclear site workplace secrecy agreements may violate federal whistleblower laws; Arkansas spill pollution case against Exxon can proceed: court; Canadian government’s own experts warn of climate change, urge action; Boom meets bust in Texas: atop a sea of oil, poverty digs in; Polar Vortex silver lining raises water levels in Great Lakes …. PLUS: Russian hackers threaten power companies, US energy infrastructure … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Flailing Climate Change Denial Industry – Fox News #FAIL Edition:
• AUDIO: Fox’s Kilmeade – “It Is Almost Treason For” Obama “To Be Focusing” On Climate Change (Media Matters):
  Kilmeade: Jamestown Colonists Didn’t Say “Let’s Not Bother The Indians, Let’s Not Even Make A Fire … Until We Solve This Global Warming Crisis”
• VIDEO: Fox News Cites Birther To Claim NASA “Faked” Global Warming (Media Matters)
• VIDEO: On Fox News, Climate Change Is Still Up For Debate (Media Matters)
• Big Coal #FAIL: Coal Baron Sues Over Obama’s ‘Evil’ Agenda – Clean Air Standards:
• Inherit the Windbags: New Monkey Trial on Climate Denialism (Sierra Club):
  Setting the scene for a 21st century version of the Scopes Monkey Trial, coal baron Robert E. Murray is suing the EPA for “lying about so-called global warming.”
• VIDEO: Energy CEO Says Carbon Regulations Are ‘Evil’ (Climate Progress):
  Robert Murray explained how he believes regulations on carbon emissions are a deliberate effort by President Obama to seize power and harm the United States. “The President, Neal, is grossly wrong. It’s incompetence. It’s evil. It’s a power grab of America’s power grid.

• Responding to ‘Risky Business’ Report, CNBC Seeks Op-Ed on ‘Global Warming Being a Hoax’ (Lee Fang, Republic Report) [emphasis added]:
  How badly does cable news network CNBC want to deny the existence of global warming? For a network with an embarrassing history of fudging the science around climate change, one CNBC booker apears to have made a big mistake.
  …
  “Hi there. Given this new report on the cost of climate change, wanted to extend an invitation to Alan Carlin to write an op-ed for CNBC.com. Can be on the new report or just his general thoughts on global warming being a hoax.”
• CNBC Caught Soliciting Writer To Claim Global Warming Is A “Hoax” (Media Matters)
• VIDEO: Beat The Press Video: Rants & Raves (WGBH):

• VIDEO: While Deniers Deny – Markets Will Respond to Climate Change (Climate Crocks)
Hank Paulson, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, talks with Erik Schatzker about the risks posed to the U.S. and global economies by climate change and his suggested steps for preparing a defense and changing the attitudes of business and the government towards climate change.

• World Bank #FTW: Acting on Climate Would Generate $2-3T in Global Economic Benefits:
• World Bank: Fighting Climate Change Would Boost Global Economy Up To $2.6 Trillion A Year (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  An important new World Bank report concludes that just a few key policies aimed at cutting carbon pollution would boost the global economy. The study “Climate-Smart Development: Adding Up the Benefits of Actions that Help Build Prosperity, End Poverty and Combat Climate Change,” looks at the European Union plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and the U.S. The Bank finds that if all six embrace three sets of policies for clean transportation plus energy efficiency in industry in buildings, “the annual benefits of just these policies in 2030 include an estimated GDP growth of between $1.8 trillion and $2.6 trillion.” Furthermore, the report found that “these policies alone would account for 30 percent of the total reduction needed in 2030 to limit global warming to 2°C [3.6°F].”
• The Losing Bet on Climate Change (Bloomberg News):
  The politics of global warming are not where my interest lay. (See “Profit From Global Warning or Get Left Behind.”) I am far more interested in your cognitive biases and how they manifest themselves in your investment portfolios. Evidence of portfolio changes related to climate change abound. This morning, an Bloomberg article titled “Hedge Funds Bet on Sugar as Dryness Threatens Crops” discussed some of the wagers institutional investors have been making…

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

• Russian hackers threaten power companies, US energy infrastructuer, researchers say (Bloomberg NEws):
  A Russian group of hackers known as “Energetic Bear” is attacking energy companies in the U.S. and Europe and may be capable of disrupting power supplies, cybersecurity researchers said.
• Hanford nuclear site: Workplace secrecy agreements may violate federal whistleblower laws (Washington Post):
  In November 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy asked contract employees at the Hanford plutonium processing plant in Washington state to take an unusual oath.

• Arkansas spill pollution case against Exxon can proceed, court says: (InsideClimate News):
  Federal and state attorneys who sued ExxonMobil Corp. over its Arkansas pipeline spill have won court rulings to keep the lawsuit alive and to deny the company’s attempt to limit the information it must provide in the case.
• Canadian government’s own experts warn of climate change, urge action: (Hill Times):
  A new report from the government’s own Natural Resources Department on climate change adaptation released last week shows a growing recognition of the need to adapt to a changing climate but also highlights the gap between the research and the political action, critics and experts say.
• Plastic debris widespread on ocean surface, study finds: (AP):
  Plastic junk is floating widely on the world’s oceans, but there’s less of it than expected, a study says.
• Polar Vortex silver lining: water levels rise in Great Lakes after record lows: (Toronto Globe & Mail):
  The polar vortex came with a silver lining: Water levels are up on the Great Lakes this summer, providing welcome news to boaters, beach-goers and cottagers who have become increasingly nervous about changing shorelines.
• Boom meets bust in Texas: atop a sea of oil, poverty digs in (NY Times):
  From the window of her tin-roofed trailer, Judy Vargas can glimpse a miraculous world. It is as close as the dust kicked up by the trucks barreling by but seems as distant as Mars.
• Report: Voters more likely to back climate-friendly candidates: (The Hill):
  Registered voters are three times more likely to vote against a candidate who opposes government action to mitigate climate change, according to a new study.
• New York court rules towns can ban fracking: (The Hill):
  The Albany Court of Appeals Monday ruled New York cities and towns can ban hydraulic fracturing within their borders.
• VIDEO: Former Treasury Secretaries Rubin & Paulson on landmark climate change report, “Risky Business” (CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS):
  [Former Treasury Secretaries Hank] Paulson and [Robert] Rubin talk with Fareed about their new report on the future of our environment if Americans do not start taking preventative measures against climate change, the cost of inaction, and the limitations to progress posed by Washington.
• A New Wind Turbine Generates Back The Energy It Takes To Build It In Just 6 Months (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  A new study finds that wind turbines have an energy payback of 6 months, which is comparable to the best solar photovoltaic systems. In other words, in their first six months of operation, large wind turbines produce the same total amount of energy that was needed to produce and install them.
• Judge blocks Colorado coal mine plan, orders feds to evaluate climate impacts (Colorado Independent) [emphasis added]:
  Despite the fact that there’s already established case law requiring climate reckoning as part of environmental studies, federal agencies have been cavalier in how they meet that obligation, said Jeremy Nichols, a conservation expert with WildEarth Guardians, a national group advocating for conservation of public lands. Especially in the case of Arch Coal’s plans in the Sunset Roadless Area southeast of Paonia. Federal officials failed to do any meaningful analysis of what it means for the climate to mine and subsequently burn 350 million tons of coal…
• 1 In 10 U.S. Beaches Are So Polluted They’re Not Safe For Swimming, Report Says (Huffington Post Green):
  You probably don’t want to dip your toes in these dirty waters.
• U.S. OKs Export of Processed Condensate, Not Oil. Why the Distinction Matters (InsideClimate News) [emphasis added]:
  Forget that headline you saw yesterday, and the frenzy that followed it, about how U.S. companies are about to export domestic crude oil for the first time since the 1970s. That’s not happening—at least not yet. “It was a total exaggeration,” said Fadel Gheit, senior oil analyst at Oppenheimer and Co. “People jumped to the conclusion that this is going to be the first step in the long-awaited lifting of the [oil] export ban.”
• If You Think Climate Politics In the US Are Crazy, Wait Till You See What Just Happened in Australia (Mother Jones)
• 4 Republican former EPA administrators call on Congress to take action on climate change (Climate Science Watch):
  Exemplifying the proactive way authentic conservatives should be talking about climate policy, former Environmental Protection Agency administrators William Ruckelshaus, Christine Todd Whitman, Lee Thomas, and William Reilly — all appointed by Republican presidents — gave Senate hearing testimony last week that stood in sharp contrast to the current Republican Senators on the panel, who seemed to live in an alternative universe, offering up a sustained litany of party-line denial and delayer talking points.
• 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.

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

• Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
• 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.
• Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
• NASA Video: Warming over the last 130 years, and into the next 100 years:
• 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).