‘Green News Report’ – November 24, 2015

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: A carbon tax is coming for Alberta’s dirty tar sands; Obama says U.N. climate conference in Paris must go forward; Senate Republicans vow to monkeywrench international climate agreement; PLUS: FDA approves first-ever GMO salmon for human consumption… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Corporate Money Fueled PR Campaign for Climate Doubt Over Two Decades; Seven key issues to be addressed at the Paris climate summit; Top Republican Lawmaker Rebutted on Climate Study Accusation; US To Cancel Lease on Land Sacred To Blackfoot Indian Tribes; Report: 90 Percent of Disasters Are Weather-Related; Tensions, threats as California’s new groundwater law takes shape; 139 Countries Could Get All of their Power from Renewable Sources… PLUS: Runaway global warming becomes a concern as permafrost melts … and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Alberta, Canada to Launch Carbon Tax, Emissions Cap, and Phase Out Coal:
• Alberta carbon plan a major pivot in environmental policy (Toronto Globe & Mail):
  The oil industry is in the second year of a crude-price collapse that has led to billions of dollars in spending cuts and at least 37,000 job losses. Previous Progressive Conservative governments in Alberta sought to shield the dominant industry from costly emission limits. Even so, the plans won plaudits from powerful oil executives along with environmental groups.
• VIDEO: Alberta’s climate-change plan: Breaking down the numbers – Alberta’s carbon tax could bring in $6 billion, but where will the money go? (CBC):
  Sunday afternoon offered up another surreal moment in Alberta’s history, as oil executives stood side by side with environmentalists, First Nations, academics and NDP politicians, all seemingly thrilled to be announcing a carbon tax for the province.
• Bending the Curve: Alberta’s Tectonic Shift in Climate Policy (Green Policy Prof) [emphasis added]:
  These changes fundamentally alter the politics of Canada. It will make it much easier for Canada to become a constructive player in global climate policy… If other provinces want to claim the mantle of climate leadership, they are going to have to step up their game, creating the potential for a “race to the top” in Canadian environmental policy. It will contribute, as Notley stated, to “a significant de-escalation worldwide of Alberta’s oil sands.”
• Both sides praise Alberta’s carbon-tax plan (UPI):
  A carbon-tax plan unveiled by the government of Alberta, Canada, received rare praise from both the oil industry and environmentalists.
• In a major step on the road to Paris, rich countries agree to slash export subsidies for coal plants (Washington Post):
  VIDEO: UK’s coal plants to be phased out within 10 years (BBC) [emphasis added]:

  The UK’s remaining coal-fired power stations will be shut by 2025 with their use restricted by 2023, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has proposed. Ms Rudd wants more gas-fired stations to be built since relying on “polluting” coal is “perverse”….If coal power plants are able to install carbon capture and storage (CCS) before 2025, they would not be closed….The government was criticised earlier this year for cutting renewable energy subsidies.
• Exxon, Keystone, and the Turn Against Fossil Fuels (Bill McKibben, The New Yorker] [emphasis added]:
  T]he fossil-fuel industry-which, for two centuries, underwrote our civilization and then became its greatest threat-has started to take serious hits…. There is, now, an elsewhere to head…. Inevitability was their shield, but no longer. If we wanted to transform our energy supply, we clearly could, though it would require an enormous global effort.The fossil-fuel industry will, of course, do everything it can to slow that effort down; even if the tide has begun to turn, that industry remains an enormously powerful force, armed with the almost infinite cash that has accumulated in its centuries of growth.

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FOR MORE on Climate Science and Climate Change, go to our Green News Report: Essential Background Page

• Skeptical Science: Database with FULL DEBUNKING of ALL Climate Science Denier Myths
• 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.
• How to Solve Global Warming: It’s the Energy Supply (Scientific American):
  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.
• Warning: Even in the best-case scenario, climate change will kick our asses (Grist)
• NASA Video: Warming over the last 130 years, and into the next 100 years:
• 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).