‘Green News Report’ – September 9, 2014

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Catastrophic floods in Pakistan & India; Historic flooding in Phoenix, AZ; Continuing denialism on Fox ‘News’; Hillary Clinton says global warming is both a crisis and an opportunity; Rand Paul isn’t interested; PLUS: A win for the Lobster Boat Blockade, and climate action … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): CO2 levels in atmosphere rising at dramatically faster rate; The end of fracking is closer than you think; US quietly forwards tar sands pipelines without environmental review; ‘Black fingers of death’ could help fight climate change; Landfill workers told toxic coal ash waste ‘safe enough to eat’; Big Oil’s many new ‘grassroots’ front groups in California’ The Ugly Denier: a real and present danger … PLUS: Watching the world slip away: how kids are responding to climate change … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Kashmir Floods: 400+ Killed in 5th Catastrophic Monsoon Season In A Row:
• Catastrophic floods: the new normal in Pakistan (Dr. Jeff Master’s Weather Underground) [emphasis added]:
  The past four consecutive monsoon seasons–2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010–have all seen top-five most expensive flood disasters in Pakistani history…. In a study published in Science in 2006, Goswami et al. found that the level of heavy rainfall activity in the monsoon over India had more than doubled in the 50 years since the 1950s, leading to an increased disaster potential from heavy flooding.
• Indian media: Kashmir flood crisis ‘deepens’ (BBC)
• VIDEO: India-Pakistan floods: Jammu bridge ‘snapped’ (BBC)
• Phoenix AZ Floods: Historic Floods On Wettest Day In Phoenix History:
• VIDEO: AZ-DPS rescues drivers on flooded I-10 (ABC15 Phoenix)
• Cars engulfed as rain sets record for Phoenix (AP):
  The remnants of Hurricane Norbert pushed into the desert Southwest and swamped Phoenix with record rainfall for a single day, turning freeways into small lakes and sending rescuers scrambling to get drivers out of inundated cars.
• Hillary Clinton: Climate Change Is Our Greatest Challenge & Opportunity:
• VIDEO: National Clean Energy Summit: Partnership & Progress (NCES 2014)
• NCES 7.0 Summary Report (+ Full Speeches From Hillary Clinton & Harry Reid) (Clean Technica)
• Hillary Clinton: America Can Be Clean-Energy ‘Superpower’ (National Journal)
• Hillary Clinton calls out climate change deniers (MSNBC)
• Hillary Clinton talks climate change, gas and exports to friendly energy crowd (Politico)
• Climate Scientists Spell Out Stark Danger And Immorality Of Inaction In New Leaked Report (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  One word in the latest draft report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sums up why climate inaction is so uniquely immoral: “Irreversible.” The message from climate scientists about our ongoing failure to cut carbon pollution: The catastrophic changes in climate that we are voluntarily choosing to impose on our children and grandchildren – and countless generations after them – cannot plausibly be undone for hundreds of years or more.
• VIDEO: Weather in 2050: Warmer, Wetter, Wilder, According to U.N. World Meteorological Organization (The Weather Channel):
  Mega-droughts. Long-lasting heat waves. Flooded coastal cities. These are the weather scenarios for 2050 from a series of imaginary yet realistic reports from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that predict of future of warmer, wetter and wilder weather.
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) Criticizes Clinton On Climate Change:
• Rand Paul Decides To Pick A Fight With Hillary Clinton Over Climate Change (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  “For her to be out there saying that the biggest threat to our safety and to our well-being is climate change, I think, goes to the heart of the matter or whether or not she has the wisdom to lead the country, which I think it’s obvious that she doesn’t,” Paul said in a Friday appearance on Fox News, while discussing ISIS — the Islamic terrorist organization that’s seized territory in parts of Iraq and Syria. “I don’t think we really want a commander-in-chief who’s battling climate change instead of terrorism.”
• Lobster Boat Blockade: A Win For Climate Action:
• Wow! What an Exciting 24 Hours! (Lobster Boat Blockade.org)
• Massachusetts District Attorney Makes History: Recognizes Necessity of Defending Climate (DeSmogBlog)
• The climate made me do it!: Environmental protesters are poised to try out the ‘necessity defense’ (Boston Globe) [emphasis added]:
  This trial will mark a pioneering invocation of the necessity defense, the longstanding legal doctrine that it is acceptable to commit a crime if you are preventing a greater harm. …Wood and O’Hara’s lawyers will make the more sweeping argument that their illegal interference with a coal delivery was justified in light of the greater danger of catastrophic climate change. In past cases, judges have blocked the attempt to use “necessity” as a defense by climate protesters. In this case, the defense has not been challenged. That means that in Bristol County, for the first time, the climate necessity defense appears bound for an American court.
• Prosecutors Side with Coal Blockaders, Drop Charges (Climate Central):
  Climate change is one of the gravest crisis our planet has ever faced,” Sutter told reporters and the accused’s supporters outside the courthouse in a prepared statement, as he held aloft an article by prominent climate journalist and organizer Bill McKibben. “In my humble opinion, the political leadership on this issue has been sorely lacking,” Sutter said.
• District Attorney Makes Climate Statement About Brayton Point Civil Disobediance (Youtube):

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

• Watching the world slip away: How our children respond to a world threatened by climate change. (High Country News):
  I am holding the hand of a small child in a yellow raincoat and orange bib overalls. His little boots have long ago filled with water. His hair is damp and smells of salt. And I am staring at my boots and thinking of what it could possibly mean to this child, to live on a planet whose life-supporting mechanisms have frayed and fallen apart.
• CO2 levels in atmosphere rising at dramatically faster rate, U.N. report warns (Washington Post):
  Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose at a record-shattering pace last year, a new report shows, a surge that surprised scientists and spurred fears of an accelerated warming of the planet in decades to come.
• The End of Fracking Is Closer Than You Think (VICE):
  [Canadian geologist David] Hughes found that the production rates at these wells decline, on average, 85 percent over three years….His conclusion calls into question the viability of developing a long-term national energy policy on the assumption that fossil fuel extraction will continue at current levels.
• As Keystone awaits fate, other tar sands projects move forward (Al Jazeera America):
  The federal government has quietly approved major tar sands transportation projects with unstudied environmental effects — managing to circumvent the executive branch’s impact analysis that paralyzed development of the Keystone XL pipeline and bolstered activists’ claims that the project is dangerous and damaging to the environment.
• Nevada governor strikes $1.25B tax deal with Tesla to build battery factory (Ars Technica)
• How The ‘Black Fingers Of Death’ Can Help Defeat Climate Change (Climate Progress):
  If they succeed and a broad effort is launched to restore millions of acres of degraded western land that have been profoundly altered by the invader, they may also be able to suck an enormous amount of carbon out of the atmosphere and store it below ground.
• Workers At Coal Waste Landfill Told That Coal Ash Is ‘Safe Enough To Eat,’ Lawsuit Says (Climate Progress):
  “Repeatedly, individuals were not provided with protective equipment, such as overalls, gloves or respirators when working in and around coal waste,” the lawsuit reads.
• Louisiana Loses Its Boot: The boot-shaped state isn’t shaped like a boot anymore. That’s why we revised its iconic outline to reflect the truth about a sinking, disappearing place. (Medium)
• Big Oil’s ‘Grass-Roots’ Groups in California (BusinessWeek):
  In recent months, groups have popped up that appear to be grass-roots organizations started by ordinary people opposed to the rules. In fact, they’re paid for by the oil industry.
• The ugly denier: a real, clear and present danger (Hot Whopper blog):
  Denialism is ugly. At its heart is an abdication of responsibility. Denialism goes hand in hand with bigotry and worse. …I don’t know if all climate science deniers are bigots, racist and sexist or not. Probably not. But evidence suggests that they are more likely to be so than the general population. Let me illustrate….
• California blue whales bounce back from whaling (Washington Post):
  [C]ommercial whaling — the hunting of whales for meat and oil — hit worldwide populations hard. The hunting of blue whales for commercial purposes was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1966, and since then only illegal whaling (and incidental deaths related to other fishing, shipping, and pollution) have threatened the species.
• VIDEO: PG&E to be penalized $1.4 billion for San Bruno explosion (San Jose Mercury News)
• California Legislature Passes Ban on Disposable Plastic Bags; If Signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Bill Would Be First Such Statewide Ban in the Country (Wall St. Journal)
• Battle Wages for California’s Groundwater Rights (Climate Central) [emphasis added]
  “In the absence of governance, it’s become a pumping arms race,” says Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “He with the biggest pump or deepest straw wins.”
• 4 Scenarios Show What Climate Change Will Do To The Earth, From Pretty Bad To Disaster (Fast CoExist):
  But exactly how bad is still an open question, and a lot depends not only on how we react, but how quickly. The rate at which humans cut down on greenhouse gas emissions–if we do choose to cut them–will have a large bearing on how the world turns out by 2100, the forecasts reveal.
• The Climate Scientist Who Pioneered Geoengineering Fears It’s About to Blow Up (Motherboard):
  “So the idea that huge swaths of the tropics might not be suitable for growing crops,” he went on, “is plausible. And if you’re unable to grow crops in huge swaths of the tropics, is that going to create political turmoil and migration? It could be a major disruption.”
• Zero carbon and economic growth can go together, UN study says (Guardian UK):
  The top 15 emitter countries could make deep cuts to emissions while also tripling economic output, according to the study

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).