‘Green News Report’ – September 11, 2014

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Going the wrong way! Greenhouse gas emissions jump at fastest rate on record; Australia’s emissions jump after carbon tax axed; Oceans acidifying at rate not seen in 300 million years; PLUS: Some good news: Ozone Hole begone! The ozone layer is bouncing back… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Stopping climate meltdown needs the courage that saved the ozone layer; The Water’s Edge: the crisis of rising sea levels; 5 consumer products linked to illegal rainforest destruction; 97 Hours of 97% Climate Consensus – with cartoons!; Despite overwhelming consensus, some media still unclear on the concept; Study finds living near frack sites may be making residents sick; UK national grid pays companies not to use energy; Is India’s PM a climate skeptic?; Montana firefighters call for global action on global warming … PLUS: We have 5 years to stop building coal plants and gas-powered cars … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Extreme Weather: Calgary Hit With ‘Freak’ Snowstorm:
• Calgary snow causes major power outages during storm (CBC) [emphasis added]:
  Thousands of Calgary homes and businesses are still without power after a freak September snowstorm blanketed the city, and officials are expecting some Calgarians will have no power overnight.
• 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.
• WMO: CO2 Jumps at Fastest Rate Ever Recorded:
• WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin: The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Based on Global Observations through 2013 [PDF] (World Meteorological Organization)
• Carbon Dioxide Concentration Surges: Record Greenhouse Gas Levels Impact Atmosphere and Oceans (World Meteorological Organization) [emphasis added]:
  The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin showed that between 1990 and 2013 there was a 34% increase in radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate – because of long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide. In 2013, concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 142% of the pre-industrial era (1750), and of methane and nitrous oxide 253% and 121% respectively.
• ‘We Are Running Out of Time’: CO2 Rises by Largest Amount in 30 Years (Mashable) [emphasis added]:
  The report, known as the annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, shows yet again that the world is headed for a far warmer future with more acidic and inhospitable oceans, as the cumulative amount of carbon dioxide continues to climb. Since a single molecule of carbon dioxide can remain aloft for hundreds of years, the emissions of today will affect many generations to come.
• 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.
• WMO: Oceans Acidifying at Rate Unseen In 300 Million Years:
• WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin: The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Based on Global Observations through 2013 [PDF] (World Meteorological Organization)
• VIDEO: U.N. Carbon Dioxide Report Holds Ominous Prediction for Oceans’ Acidity (NBC News):
  The finding in the World Meteorological Organization’s annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin (PDF) is bad news for the critters that live in that water: Studies have shown that the more-acid water already is eating away the shells of tiny sea snails and king crabs and killing oyster larvae. That’s a problem for everything up the food chain: salmon and other fish, dolphins, whales, and humans.
• The oceans are acidifying at the fastest rate in 300 million years. How bad could it get? (Vox)
• Australia’s Emissions Jump After Carbon Tax Repeal:
• Carbon Tax Repeal Boosts Australian Pollution (Reuters):
  Carbon emissions and electricity demand in Australia have risen in the two months since the government repealed a tax on emissions, bucking a nearly six-year long trend of decline, an energy consultancy said on Thursday.
• How Australia Perfected Solar Power and Then Went Back to Coal (VICE.com) [emphasis added]:
  There was a time in the 1980s when Australia led the world in solar technology….Fast-forward to 2014 and Australian solar power is in a very different place. This week a proposed solar farm with 2,000 dishes—capable of powering 30,000 homes—was canceled amid uncertainty about the future of renewable energy. This comes at a time when every one of the country’s proposed solar farms are on hold and coal operators push legislation to strangle solar proliferation. So what happened?
• Good News: The Ozone Layer Is Beginning To Recover:
• Ozone layer recovering but remains threatened – UN reports (United Nations News Centre)
• VIDEO: International Action Against Ozone Depleting Substances Yields Significant Gains (NASA.gov) [emphasis added]:
  Worldwide action to phase out ozone-depleting substances has resulted in remarkable success, according to a new assessment by 300 international scientists. The stratospheric ozone layer, a fragile shield of gas that protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet light, is on track to recovery over the next few decades.
• Good news: The hole in the ozone layer is finally starting to heal (Vox.com):
  Sometimes the world really can get together and avert a major environmental catastrophe before it’s too late. A new UN report finds that the Earth’s protective ozone layer is finally starting to recover — after efforts in the 1980s to phase out CFCs and other destructive chemicals.
• In-Depth: Ozone layer is recovering, say scientists (NZ Herald)
• Ozone layer is healing, expected to recover by around 2050, major report finds (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  “It is particularly gratifying to report that the ozone layer is on track for recovery to 1980 benchmark levels by mid-century,” says NASA scientist Paul Newman and co-chair of the report. “Many of these early signs of ozone improvements are due to decades of work and contributions by NASA and NOAA instruments and scientists.”
  …
  The phaseout of certain ozone depleting substances, which are heat-trapping greenhouse gases, has also benefited the climate (by reducing global warming), the report notes. However, some of the replacements for ozone depleting substances are powerful greenhouse gases themselves. For example, hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs – refrigerants used as replacements for CFCs, are growing at a rate of 7 percent per year. “Left unabated, [HFCs] can be expected to contribute very significantly to climate change in the next decades,” the report says.
• Ozone-depleting compound remains in our atmosphere (USA Today)
• Transcript: Margaret Thatcher’s Speech to United Nations General Assembly on the Global Environment (MargaretThatcher.org)
• VIDEO: Margaret Thatcher – UN General Assembly Climate Change Speech (1989) (Youtube):

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

• Water’s Edge: The crisis of rising sea levels (Reuters):
  A Reuters analysis finds that flooding is increasing along much of the nation’s coastline, forcing many communities into costly, controversial struggles with a relentless foe.
• Stopping climate meltdown needs the courage that saved the ozone layer (Guardian UK):
  In The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins, a comedy made in 1971, Spike Milligan portrays Sloth as a tramp trying to get through a farm gate. This simple task is rendered almost impossible by the fact that he can’t be bothered to take his hands out of his pockets and open the latch. He tries everything: getting over it, under it, through it, hurling himself at it, risking mortal injury, expending far more energy and effort than the obvious solution would require.

  This is how environmental diplomacy works.

• 5 consumer products linked to illegal rainforest destruction (Treehugger):
  Tropical deforestation is often illegal, but it’s driven by the market for these in-demand agricultural products.
• 97 Hours of 97 Percent of Climate Consensus — With Cartoons! (Climate Crocks) [emphasis added]:
  One of the best responses so far, which came thru Reddit: “I first want to thank you for what you are doing and let you know it’s not all for nothing. A few years ago your website convinced me that I was wrong about climate change.”
• Despite Overwhelming Consensus, Some Media Still Unclear on Concept (Climate Crocks)
• Residents living nearer natural gas wells report more health symptoms, Yale study says (Cleveland Plain Dealer):
  People who live closer to natural gas wells, including those that were drilled using “fracking,” or hydraulic fracturing, report more health symptoms than those who live farther away, according to a study reported today by Yale University researchers.
• National Grid to pay companies to not use energy. 300MW of “negawatts” identified. (Treehugger):
  [T]he UK’s National Grid is seeking partners who are willing to power down, investing in what are sometimes referred to as negawatts.
• Activists promise biggest climate march in history (Guardian UK):
  People’s Climate March in New York and cities worldwide hopes to put pressure on heads of state at Ban Ki-moon summit/
• Is India PM Narendra Modi a climate sceptic? (Guardian UK):
  India’s PM used to call climate action a moral duty, now he tells students ‘climate has not changed, we have changed.’
• Arctic Sea Ice Update 2014 (Arctic Ice Blog)
• Wildfire smoke-jumpers call for global action on climate change (Missoulian) [emphasis added]:
  As former Montana smokejumpers, we are increasingly alarmed by the severity, size and expense of wildfires. . But climate is about trends and scientists say that those trends are proving what our guts have told us for a long time – climate change is an increasing problem for firefighters, who are facing increasing risks as a result. Scientists say that climate change has implications for wildfire danger. We believe them.
• New Global ‘Roadmap’ Shows Where to Put Future Roads (Climate Central) [emphasis added]:
  “The best thing you could do for the Amazon is to blow up all the roads.” These might sound like the words of an eco-terrorist, but it’s actually a direct quote from Eneas Salati, a forest climatologist and one of Brazil’s most respected scientists.
  …
  In new research published last week in Nature, we’ve developed a global “roadmap” of where to put those roads to avoid damaging the environment.
• Hillary Clinton: America Can Be Clean-Energy ‘Superpower’ (National Journal)
• 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.
• 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.
• 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).