Follow @GreenNewsReport…
(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)
(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: ‘GNR’ Special Climate Week Coverage continues: China’s first-ever pledge to cut emissions; Environmental experts say we’re not doing enough; Administration officials make the economic case for climate action; PLUS: Corporate titans step up to the challenge … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)…
| Link: | |
| Embed: |
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): India’s emissions will increase, official says; Brazil refuses to reduce deforestation; Liberia signs ‘transformational’ deal to stop deforestation; ALEC lashes out at Google for “lying” charge; USFS proposes limits on journalists on public lands; Futurist predicts free solar in 20 years; Why Republicans went insane; BP loses in court again; Oil industry secretly preparing for carbon pricing; Endangered wolves get a reprieve in Wyoming… PLUS: Obama To Designate World’s Largest Marine Sanctuary in the Pacific … and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Climate Week 2014 Wraps Up With New Initiatives:
- China to Seek Cap on Emissions as Obama Rallies Action (Bloomberg News)
- UN climate summit: China pledges emissions action (BBC)
- UN Climate Summit: Who’s Promised What (Mashable)
- U.N. climate summit sets goals to save forests, use clean energy (Reuters)
- World Bank Backs Carbon Pricing, Convenes Leadership Coalition (Environment News Service)
- NY Mayor De Blasio Orders a Greener City, Setting Goals for Energy Efficiency of Buildings (NY Times)
- President Obama announces climate action at United Nations summit (MSNBC)
- L.A., Houston, Philadelphia mayors vow more action on climate change (LA Times)
- Hollande Says France To Offer $1 Billion To Climate Fund for Poor (Reuters)
- Bonn to Istanbul to New York: World Mayors Unite to Save Climate (Environmental News Service)
- Environmental Experts, Activists Warn: We’re Not Doing Enough:
- All over the planet, countries are completely missing their emissions targets (Washington Post)
- Tough Slog Ahead to Fulfill UN Climate Summit Promises (Bloomberg)
- VIDEO: Arrested climate change polar bear ‘Frostpaw’ talks to Chris Hayes (All In with Chris Hayes, MSNBC):
The Climate Change Polar Bear, “Frostpaw,†who was arrested on Wall Street is an advocate from the Center for Biological Diversity. Peter Galvin talks with Chris Hayes about getting arrested and what we really need to do to arrest climate change.
- VIDEO: Why Obama’s moves against climate change are ‘small potatoes’ (Now with Alex Wagner, MSNBC)
- Administration Officials Make the Economic Case for Climate Action:
- Denying Climate Change ‘Will Cost Us Billions Of Dollars,’ U.S. Budget Director Warns (Climate Progress)
- VIDEO: John Kerry opens NYC Climate Week (Guardian UK)
- VIDEO: Economics and the Environment: EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy On Economic Benefits of Climate Action: (Resources For the Future Foundation)
- Remarks by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy at Resources for the Future (Insurance News West)
- Climate change offers ‘opportunity,’ EPA says (USA Today)
- AUDIO: Treasury Sec. Jack Lew on the Economic Costs of Climate Change (The Hamilton Project)
- Remarks of Sec. Jacob Lew on the Economics of Climate Change: [PDF] (The Hamilton Project)
- Treasury Secretary Lew: Climate change hits all sectors of economy (The Hill)
- Corporate Titans Step Up to the Challenge:
- VIDEO: Apple CEO Tim Cook: Tech Companies Must Get Serious on Climate Change (NBC News)
- Companies Take the Baton in Climate Change Efforts (NY Times):
Forty companies, among them Kellogg, L’Oréal and Nestlé, signed a declaration on Tuesday pledging to help cut tropical deforestation in half by 2020 and stop it entirely by 2030. They included several of the largest companies handling palm oil, the production of which has resulted in rampant destruction of old-growth forests, especially in Indonesia.
- World’s Largest Coal Miner To Invest $1.2 Billion In Solar Power (Clean Technica)
- ExxonMobil Celebrates Climate Week NYC With A Big FU (Clean Technica):
t was either a classic case of bad timing or a deliberate FU, but whatevs. We’re going with the latter. At 7:45 p.m. last night, almost precisely in the middle of the history-making events of Climate Week NYC, ExxonMobil sent a press release over the wires announcing major expansions for petrochemical operations at their refineries in Singapore and Antwerp.
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Obama To Designate World’s Largest Marine Sanctuary in the Pacific (Reuters):
President Barack Obama on Thursday will designate the largest marine sanctuary in the world in an area of the Pacific Ocean that will be off-limits to commercial fishing and deep-sea mining, the White House said on Wednesday.
- Emissions From India Will Increase, Official Says (NY Tiems):
In a blow to American hopes of reaching an international deal to fight global warming, India’s new environment minister said Wednesday that his country would not offer a plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a climate summit next year in Paris.
- Brazil refuses to join pledge to end deforestation (BBC):
Brazil has refused to sign up to a pact setting a deadline for ending deforestation entirely by 2030. The US, Canada and European Union nations were among 30 states that agreed to halve forest loss by 2020 and work towards a 2030 goal.
- Liberia signs ‘transformational’ deal to stem deforestation (BBC)
- ALEC lobbying group lashes out at Google over climate change ‘lies’ charge (Guardian UK):
Conservative group addresses rebuttal to Google founders, who said group ‘lies’ about science, as rightwing allies attack IPCC
- 1st Amendment Alarm: USFS Says Media Need Photo Permit in Wilderness (The Oregonian):
The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country’s wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas.
- When the Republicans went insane: Newt Gingrich, Fox News, Grover Norquist and the roots of today’s shameful intransigence (Salon):
Understanding the GOP revolution means studying the mid-’90s, when Fox and Drudge began, and tax pledges meant all
- Futurist predicts free solar power in 20 years (Solar Love blog):
Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil said recently that solar power will be widespread and nearly free in about twenty years. Kurzweil is currently the Director of Engineering at Google, so he certainly is someone to be reckoned with.
- Businesses Won’t Have To Return BP Spill Payouts, Federal Judge Says (Huffington Post Green):
A federal judge has ruled that BP must stand by the agreement made with the companies it compensated for losses after the 2010 Gulf oil spill despite the oil giant saying some claims were overestimated.
- Judge Reinstates Protections for Wyoming Wolves (AP)
- Two Forces Moving Business Closer to Climate Action (Harvard Business Review)
- Oil Companies Quietly Prepare For a Future of Carbon Pricing (Yale e360);
The major oil companies in the U.S. have not had to pay a price for the contribution their products make to climate change. But internal accounting by the companies, along with a host of other signs, suggest that may soon change — though the implications of a price on carbon are far from clear.
- Naomi Klein Is Right, Unchecked Capitalism Will Destroy Civilization (Climate Progress):
Choosing “unregulated capitalism” over human civilization would be a “morally monstrous” choice – and so the winning message for the climate movement is a moral one.
- 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.
FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page
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.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.†– Mahatma Gandhi
“This latest edition of the Living Planet Report is not for the faint-hearted. One key point that jumps out and captures the overall picture is that the Living Planet Index (LPI), which measures more than 10,000 representative populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, has declined by 52 per cent since 1970. Put another way, in less than two human generations, population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by half. These are the living forms that constitute the fabric of the ecosystems which sustain life on Earth – and the barometer of what we are doing to our own planet, our only home. We ignore their decline at our peril.”
(Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch – 4, quoting The Living Living Planet Report).
Goodbye Mum Nature.
Good post, Dredd. There was a flicker of light amid the darkness — wildlife preserves and refuges do seem to be stemming the decline somewhat, and aggressive fisheries management is succeeding in bringing back some populations from the brink. It can work, when we bother to try.