‘Green News Report’ – November 3, 2015

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: First-ever hurricane for the nation of Yemen; Hillary Clinton comes out in support of an investigation of Exxon; Record warm oceans blamed for the collapse of Maine’s cod fishery; PLUS: TransCanada calls time out on its controversial Keystone XL pipeline… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Scientists confirm their fears about West Antarctica — that it’s inherently unstable; 10 takeaways from UN report on national climate pledges; Coal not coming back, Appalachian Power president says; Washington’s Promising Pollution Story Starts With Oysters And Ends With Victory; China confronts the pain of kicking its coal addiction; Study Shows Extensive Coral Damage Related To BP Spill… PLUS: The Economic Cost Of Climate Change… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• UPDATE on Antarctica Ice Study:
More on Antarctic Ice Melt (Climate Crocks):
Quick summary: new paper uses data sets that end in 2008 to assert that Antarctica is, overall, gaining mass, and not contributing to sea level rise. Yet, very accurate satellite measures of sea level show an accelerating rise (not to mention the water up around people’s ankles in Miami and elsewhere..) So what’s up?…What is absolutely obvious is that this does NOT in any way mean that we don’t need to worry about sea-level rise from our warming.
• Transcanada Asks to ‘Suspend’ Keystone XL Pipeline:
• TransCanada asks to suspend U.S. permit application for Keystone XL pipeline, putting project in limbo (Omaha World-Herald)
• TransCanada asks US to suspend pipeline application (AP):
  TransCanada said Monday a suspension would be appropriate while it works with Nebraska authorities for approval of its preferred route through the state. The move comes before the Obama administration was widely expected to reject it.
• League of Conservation Voters: statement on Transcanada requesting suspension of KXL permit (LCV.org):
  Suspending the Keystone XL permit application at this point would be absurd. This is nothing more than another desperate and cynical attempt by TransCanada to build their dirty pipeline someday if they get a climate denier in the White House in 2017.
• Response to TransCanada request for suspension of Keystone XL application (Oil Change International):
  Bottom line: the Keystone XL pipeline has been defeated by the movement with an assist from the markets – it only remains for the President to reject the permit and call an end to this.
• TransCanada asks State Department to suspend long-running review of Keystone XL (Fuel Fix) [emphasis added]:
  Plummeting crude prices also have stifled growth in Alberta’s oil sands, with Shell and other companies halting projects to extract the hydrocarbon bitumen from the region….Pipeline foes accused TransCanada of trying to delay the process in hopes that a Republican with a more favorable view of Keystone XL would be elected to the White House next year.
• TransCanada asks US to suspend Keystone review (Financial Times) [emphasis added]:
  TransCanada explained that it had filed an application with the energy regulator in the state of Nebraska…The regulator is expected to take seven to twelve months to review that proposal…Unless Mr Obama chooses to rush a decision through in his last few months in office, that would mean a decision would be left to his successor.
• Landowners fill courtroom, urge judge to keep their legal battle against Keystone XL pipeline alive (Omaha World-Herald):
  Attorneys for TransCanada Corp. asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the legal issues have become moot since the company recently decided to walk away from the approval it obtained in 2013 from former Gov. Dave Heineman.
• Lawrence Lessig Withdraws from 2016 Campaign:
• VIDEO: Lawrence Lessig quits Democratic race, says party changed rules to exclude him from debate (Vox.com):
  “It is now clear that the party won’t let me be a candidate,” he said. “I must today end my campaign for the Democratic nomination.”
• Campaign-Finance Crusader Lawrence Lessig Ends Presidential Bid (NPR)
• VIDEO: Hillary Clinton Endorses Federal Investigation of Exxon (Climate Progress):
  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has joined the ranks of politicians and environmentalists calling for a federal investigation of ExxonMobil.
• Extraordinary Chapala: First-Ever Recorded Hurricane for Yemen:
  • Cyclone Chapala will dump 10 years’ worth of rain on Yemen in just 2 days (Mashable) [emphasis added]:
    The storm may bring catastrophic amounts of rain — at least a decade’s worth of rain over the course of just a day or two in populated areas of war-torn Yemen, a country currently involved in a complicated civil war that involves regional powers, including Saudi Arabia. The war will severely limit the ability of Yemen’s government to respond to any flooding and other storm damage with aid and other assistance, placing an even greater burden on already-stretched international aid groups and the United Nations.
  • Rare cyclone poses new worries for war-torn Yemen (CNN)
  • Chapala Closing in on Yemen; Record November Warmth in Florida, Europe (Dr. Jeff Masters, Weather Underground):
    A stretch of Middle Eastern coastline unaccustomed to tropical cyclones of any type is about to experience a full-blown landfall, as Cyclone Chapala bears down on the central coast of Yemen.

• Record Warm Oceans Blamed For Maine Cod Fishery Collapse:
• Climate change is doing some very strange things to the waters off New England (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  A new scientific study says that rapidly warming waters off the New England coast have had a severe consequence — the collapse of a cod fishery that saw too many catches even as overall cod numbers declined due to warmer seas.
• Why Is It So Hard To Save Gulf Of Maine Cod? They’re In Hot Water (NPR):
  In the journal Science, Pershing and his colleagues say the warming was also hurting the cod — and managers didn’t take it into account when setting their fishing quotas. That means even if people didn’t exceed their quotas, too much cod got taken.
• Antarctica: Good News and Bad News in Mass Ice Balance:
• NASA Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses (NASA.gov) [emphasis added]:
  A new NASA study says that an increase in Antarctic snow accumulation that began 10,000 years ago is currently adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh the increased losses from its thinning glaciers….“The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away,” Zwally said. “But this is also bad news. If the 0.27 millimeters per year of sea level rise attributed to Antarctica in the IPCC report is not really coming from Antarctica, there must be some other contribution to sea level rise that is not accounted for.”
• An Opposing View: Weekend Rebel Science Excursion – 52 (Dredd’s Blog, BradBlog commenter “Dredd”) [emphasis added]:
  The author admits that his paper, written before the IPCC released its 2013 consensus report, is contrary to that scientific consensus, as is his current paper released on Friday.
• Mass gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet greater than losses (Science Daily)
• Scientists Confirm E Antarctica’s Biggest Glacier Is Melting From Below (Washington Post):
  Scientists have observed a thinning of East Antarctica’s Totten Glacier, which they now believe is because it is being undermined by sea water. This could cause significant sea level rise.

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

• Scientists confirm their fears about West Antarctica — that it’s inherently unstable (Washington Post) [emphasis added]:
  The urgency may now increase further in light of just published research suggesting that destabilization of the Amundsen sea’s glaciers would indeed undermine the entirety of West Antarctica, as has long been feared….“The result of this study is an if–then statement, saying that if the Amundsen Sea Sector is destabilized, then the entire marine part of West Antarctica will be discharged into the ocean.”
• 10 takeaways from UN report on national climate pledges (Climate Change News):
  Most countries got involved, adaptation matters and emissions are still rising – nuggets from official review ahead of Paris summit…
• Coal not coming back, Appalachian Power president says (Charleston Gazette):
  “With or without the Clean Power Plan, the economics of alternatives to fossil-based fuels are making inroads in the utility plan,” Patton said. “Companies are making decisions today where they are moving away from coal-fired generation.”
• Washington’s Promising Pollution Story Starts With Oysters And Ends With Victory (Climate Progress) [emphasis added]:
  Already, he could tell from the few samples they had collected that he and his team had the material for a major scientific paper. He called his boss at NOAA to tell him that there was something wrong with the water.
• The Economic Cost Of Climate Change (Climate Progress):
  They found that most countries have an economic sweet spot of 55°F — if a country tended to be cooler than 55°F, its economic performance tended to increase as it warmed towards 55°F. Once countries cross that threshold, however, their economic performance tended to decrease.
• China confronts the pain of kicking its coal addiction (Washington Post):
  “I was traditionally, honestly extraordinarily pessimistic about all this, if you had asked me two or three years ago,” said Mikkal Herberg, director of the Energy Security Program at the Seattle-based National Bureau of Asian Research. “It is only in the last year or two that I have actually begun to believe they can do some of the things they are promising to do.”
• 46 million tons of trash — or treasure? (Ensia):
  By illustrating how much e-waste is produced worldwide, where it’s generated and its fate, the report seeks to showcase the tremendous opportunities for recyclers, reusers and take-back programs to turn trash to treasure.
• Study Shows Extensive Coral Damage Related To BP Spill (Hattiesburg American):
  Gulf coral damage from the massive BP oil spill is more extensive than previously thought, according to a new study that revealed sick and dying corals in the rich, deep-water environment off the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi known as the Pinnacles.
• Southern Kansas Sees Sudden Spike in Earthquakes (Washington Post):
  A sudden spike of earthquakes in southern Kansas is raising eyebrows in the region, where there have been more earthquakes in the past two weeks than there were in the years between 1990 and 2013.
• Lights Out in Britain for the Coal Industry (NY Times):
  Tens of thousands of British coal miners have lost their jobs in recent decades, during the steep decline of an industry that stoked the nation’s industrial rise, sustained it through two world wars and once employed more than one million people.
>Russia Thwarts Plan for Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary, China on Board (Reuters):
Russia has again thwarted attempts to create the world’s largest ocean sanctuary in Antarctica, the final country opposing the protection of a vast swathe of rich waters from fishing, after a revised international plan won support from China.

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).