‘Green News Report’ – October 14, 2014

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Coal wins Kentucky’s U.S. Senate debate!; Pentagon warns climate change an immediate threat to national security; East Coast cities could see daily flooding from rising seas within 30 years; Wind power the cheapest source of energy; PLUS: It’s official: September 2014 was the hottest September on record globally (Don’t tell Fox ‘News’!)… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Record Antarctic sea ice a ‘warning bell’; Australia PM: “Coal is good for humanity”; Sea level rising fastest in 6k years; BPA manufacturers releasing into the air; Renewables driving power generation in Africa; Emissions cuts will fuel ‘boom’ in Midwest jobs; Louisiana racing to reclaim vanishing lands; Oil tankers spill into Seattle waters… PLUS: Can Progressives, enviros, and scientists save capitalism from the pro-collapse polluters? … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• VIDEO: To Fox News, It’s Never The Right Time To Discuss Climate Change (Media Matters):
  Stuart Varney: “The Timing Is Wrong” To Be Talking About Climate Change: While discussing a recent report from the Pentagon on climate change, Fox Business host Stuart Varney declared that “the timing is wrong” to be dealing with climate change. Varney insisted the timing was suspicious in light of the upcoming midterm elections.
• It’s Official: September 2014 the Hottest September on Record:
• The Planet Just Had Its Hottest September On Record (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  Last month was the warmest September globally since records began being kept in 1880, NASA reported Sunday. January through September data have 2014 already at the third warmest on record. Projections by NOAA make clear 2014 is taking aim at hottest year on record.
  Remarkably, this September record occurred even though we’re still waiting for the start of El Niño, which reveals just how strong the underlying trend of human-caused warming is.
• September Was Warmest on Record, NASA Data Shows (Climate Central)
• NASA: September 2014 Hottest In Recorded Weather History (The Weather Channel)
• VIDEO: NASA on Arctic/Antarctic Sea Ice (Climate Crocks)
• Pentagon: Climate Change Is A Direct Threat To National Security:
• REPORT: Dept. of Defense Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap (PDF] (Dept. of Defense)
• The Department of Defense Must Plan for the National Security Implications of Climate Change (WhiteHouse.gov)
• Pentagon: We Could Soon Be Fighting Climate Wars (Mother Jones)
• Hagel: Climate change will challenge US military (AP) [emphasis added]:
  “Climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’ because it has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we already confront today — from infectious disease to armed insurgencies — and to produce new challenges in the future,” Hagel said. He spoke during the opening session of the conference, which was attended by defense ministers and military chiefs of more than 30 countries from the Americas, Spain and Portugal.
• Pentagon Signals Security Risks of Climate Change NY Times)
• Pentagon Releases Climate Plan, Citing Security Threat of Global Warming (Wall St. Journal)
• East Coast Cities Could See Daily Flooding by 2045:
• New Study Finds Steep Increase in East Coast High-Tide Floods (Union of Concerned Scientists) [emphasis added]:
  Flooding events may triple in 15 years, increase ten-fold in 30 years for most towns analyzed, science group finds….In 30 years’ time, nine towns could see tidal flooding 240 times or more per year.
• Report: Encroaching Tides (2014) (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• US east coast cities face frequent flooding due to climate change (Guardian UK)
• When sea levels rise, high tides will spill into communities far more often, study says (Washington Post):
  The study by the Union of Concerned Scientists predicts that by 2045 the nation’s capital and the capital of Maryland will experience about 400 floods per year, sometimes twice in a single day.
• East Coast communities threatened by tidal flooding, sea level rise (UPI):
  By 2045, the report’s authors say, the nation’s capital will witness 400 floods per year.
• Coal Wins In Kentucky Senate Race:
• VIDEO: Kentucky Senate Debate between Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) (C-SPAN)
• Alison Lundergan Grimes To Mitch McConnell: Lost Coal Jobs ‘Happened On Your Watch, Senator’ (Climate Progress)
• Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes Face Off In Only Debate (AP)
• McConnell and Grimes talk Obamacare, climate, coal in only debate (MSNBC)
• ‘I’m Not A Scientist’: A Complete Guide To Politicians Who Plead Ignorance On Climate Change (Climate Progress)
• McConnell on climate change: ‘Not a scientist’ (Louisville Courier-Journal)
• McConnell Called ‘Needlessly Angry’ After Tough KY Sports Radio Interview (Talking Points Memo)
• Coal-Fired Politics: In Kentucky Senate Race, Bitter Rivals Woo a Dying Industry: Incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell and challenger Alison Grimes are fighting over an industry that provides just .06 percent of Kentucky’s jobs. (InsideClimate News)
• Wind Energy the Cheapest Source of Electricity:
• Wind Power Is Actually Cheaper Than Coal, Says Leaked Government Report (Motherboard) [emphasis added]:
  A leaked report shows that wind is the hands-down cheapest energy source in Europe, beating the presumably dirt-cheap coal and gas by a mile. Conventional wisdom holds that clean energy is more expensive than its fossil-fueled counterparts; politicians who oppose incentives for solar and wind routinely point to their cost as an omnipresent hurdle.

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

• Can Progressives, Enviros, And Scientists Save Capitalism From The Pro-Collapse Polluters? (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.” — Edward Abbey
  FDR famously saved capitalism from itself, from its worst excesses and most venal practitioners. Now eight decades later, scientists, environmentalists, and progressives are in a similar position. Unchecked capitalism is a Ponzi scheme that must collapse. We are living unsustainably off the wealth of our children — their livable climate, their soil and arable land, their fisheries and oceans, their groundwater, their life-sustaining forests, and so on.
• Expanding Antarctic Sea Ice is Flooding ‘Warning Bell’ (Climate Central):
  Research suggests that the expansion of Antarctic sea ice heralds ocean changes that will hasten ice sheet melting, by trapping heat beneath a layer of cold surface water, worsening flooding around the world.
• Coal ‘good for humanity’, Prime Minister Tony Abbott says at $3.9b Queensland mine opening (ABC Australia):
  “People will be shaking their heads in disbelief at the Prime Minister’s alarming comment today, and future generations will wonder how our Prime Minister could be so short-sighted,” Senator Waters said. “While our Prime Minister continues to ignore reality, Australians understand coal is threatening our very way of life and our planet, with global warming, sea level rise and acidification and more extreme weather events.”
• Sea level rise over past century unmatched in 6,000 years, says study (Gurardian UK):
  Research finds 20cm rise since start of 20th century, caused by global warming and the melting of polar ice, is unprecedented
• BPA in Air: Manufacturing Plants in Ohio, Indiana, Texas Top Emitters (Environmental Health News):
  As concerns mount over people’s exposure to the plasticizer bisphenol A in everyday products, it’s also contaminating the air near manufacturing plants: U.S. companies emitted about 26 tons of the hormone-disrupting compound in 2013.
• Renewables to Drive Power Generation Growth in Africa, IEA Says (Bloomberg) [emphasis added]:
  Renewable energy will satisfy much of Africa’s expanding power needs by 2040 as the continent unlocks vast hydropower resources, the International Energy Agency said. Energy demand south of the Sahara Desert will grow 80 percent as the economy quadruples in size during the period, the Paris-based institution said in a report released today. Renewable energy and hydropower will supply almost half of the growth.
• OPEC Split as Oil Prices Fall Sharply (NY Times):
  Oil prices sank again on Monday, giving consumers more of a break and causing a split among OPEC leaders about what action should be taken, if any, to halt the slide.
• Carbon Cuts Will Spark “Boom” in Industrial Midwest (Climate Crocks):
  Efforts to battle global warming and climate change by limiting carbon dioxide emissions are likely to produce a massive building boom at Michigan power plants in years to come, potentially creating thousands of jobs.
• Lost Louisiana: the race to reclaim vanished land back from the sea (Guardian UK)
• Oil Tankers Leaking into Seattle’s Water (Daily Beast):
  A highly flammable byproduct flowed from oil tankers into an area stormwater system for at least a year before state regulators inspected the problem.
• Paul Ryan Still Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About On Climate Change (Climate Progress):
  On Monday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) reiterated that he doesn’t think climate change is worth fighting, or that human beings are to blame….Ryan also asserted that “we’ve had climate change forever,” and that the benefits of policies to cut carbon emissions “do not outweigh the costs.”
• Printable Solar Panels May Be Coming to a Device Near You (Mashable):
  Australian scientists claim they are extremely close to having printable solar panels available for market.
• 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

• 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).