‘Green News Report’ – September 1, 2016

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: President Obama urges climate action from Tahoe to Hawaii to Midway to his final presidential visit to Asia; Not one but two rare hurricanes threaten Hawaii as Obama visits; PLUS: Global insurance industry tells G20 to ‘kick away the carbon crutches’… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Colombia: Three Environmental Activists Assassinated; Corps Approved Dakota Pipeline Over Objections of 3 Federal Agencies; Al Gore: The Clean Energy Revolution Is ‘A Dramatic New Reality’; Africa’s elephants rapidly declining; Thousands of Homes Keep Flooding, Yet They Keep Being Rebuilt Again; Floridians Overwhelmingly Support Solar In Tuesday Vote; Colorado voters won’t get to decide on new fracking rules… PLUS: Fuel economy: Want to know your car’s true mileage? It’s complicated… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Two rare hurricanes threaten Hawaii:
• One Hurricane Is Rare In Hawaii, And The State Might See Two This Week (538.com):
  Although Tropical Storm Iselle made landfall on the Big Island in 2014 and Tropical Storm Darby did so just last month, no hurricane has hit there since 1949…In recent years, Hawaii’s hurricane threat appears to have grown, although whether that is a symptom of natural climate variability or human-caused climate change is a subject of scientific debate.
• Two hurricanes on course for historic encounter with Big Island of Hawaii (Mashable)




• Obama on environmental successes, challenges at Lake Tahoe Summit:
• VIDEO: President Obama Delivers Remarks in Lake Tahoe, Nevada (C-SPAN)
• Transcript: Remarks by the President at the 20th Annual Lake Tahoe Summit (White House)
• Obama, state leaders praise efforts to save Lake Tahoe (KCRA Reno):
  Scientists are worried about the loss of clarity in the alpine lake caused by a wide variety of factors over past half-century, including housing construction, storm-water runoff, automobiles and aquatic species. The newest threat is climate change. The lake’s temperature has risen faster over the last four years than any time on record.
• At Lake Tahoe, Obama calls on U.S. to confront climate-change threat (Washington Post)
• Obama at Lake Tahoe: White House pledges support for Salton Sea, geothermal energy (Desert Sun)
• FACT SHEET: At Lake Tahoe Summit, Obama Administration Underscores the Importance of Strong Partnerships and Innovation in Tackling our Shared Climate and Conservation Challenges (White House)
• Obama urges climate action, conservation at Pacific leaders’ conservation summit:
• VIDEO: President Obama delivers remarks at the 2016 Pacific Island Conference of Leaders (White House)
• Obama Travels to Far Corner to Push for Environment (US News):
  Halfway between East and West, President Barack Obama is traveling to one of the most remote corners of the ocean, Midway Atoll, to amplify his call for global action on environmental protection.
• Obama visits Midway Atoll, a symbol for his climate, Asia legacy (Reuters):
  The island wildlife refuge is described by those who have been there as a kind of “Garden of Eden” where the world’s oldest-known albatross returns each year to nest and the electric blue ocean teems with fish…Obama’s visit will focus on the challenge climate change poses to oceans and the need to expand upon international agreements like the one he announced with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014.
• Report: At G20, Obama will formally enter U.S. into Paris Agreement:
• Sources: Obama, China aim to formally join Paris climate pact ahead of G-20 (Politico):
  President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to formally commit their nations to last year’s Paris climate change agreement in the coming days, a move that would increase pressure on other nations to follow suit and serve as an implicit rebuke to the deal’s skeptics inside the U.S. Two sources briefed on the possible announcement told POLITICO that U.S. and Chinese officials are laying plans for Obama and Xi to officially join the agreement this weekend during the president’s trip to China for the G-20 summit in Hangzhou.
• Obama Begins His Final Asia Trip as President (NY Times)
• Insurance Industry to G20: ‘Kick the carbon crutches’:
• Insurers call on G20 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2020 (Reuters):
  Insurers with $1.2 trillion under management called on Tuesday for the Group of 20 to set a timetable to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels by 2020 when they meet at a summit in China this weekend.
• Major insurers urge G20 leaders to commit to 2020 fossil fuel subsidy phase out (ODI) [emphasis added]:
  Mark Wilson, CEO of Aviva plc, said…‘Climate change in particular represents the mother of all risks – to business and to society as a whole. And that risk is magnified by the way in which fossil fuel subsidies distort the energy market. These subsidies are simply unsustainable. ‘We’re calling on governments to kick away these carbon crutches, reveal the true impact to society of fossil fuels and take into account the price we will pay in the future for relying on them.
• Statement: Implementation of G20 Commitment to Phase-Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies (ODI)

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

• Colombia: Three Environmental Activists Assassinated (Democracy Now):
  In Colombia, three environmental activists who were organizing against illegal mining have been assassinated. Local organizers say activists Joel Meneses, Nereo Meneses Guzmán and Ariel Sotelo were kidnapped by armed gunmen dressed as military officers on Monday. Their bodies were found hours later.
• Corps Approved Dakota Pipeline Over Objections of 3 Federal Agencies (Inside Climate News):
  Sioux tribe’s concerns were echoed in official reports by the EPA and two other agencies, but Army Corps of Engineers brushed them aside.
• Fuel economy: Want to know your car’s true mileage? It’s complicated (E&E News) [emphasis added]:
  EPA can’t change how to test CAFE compliance because the Energy Policy and Conservation Act requires that the methodology “shall be the procedures utilized by the EPA Administrator for model year 1975 … or procedures which yield comparable results.”…While EPA believes its new test is better, the agency cannot lobby Congress for permission to use it in the CAFE program.
• Al Gore: The Clean Energy Revolution Is ‘A Dramatic New Reality’ (Climate Progress):
  It will be bigger than the industrial and information revolutions combined.
• Africa’s elephants rapidly declining: study (Al Jazeera):
  The continent’s savanna elephants are in danger of being wiped out as poaching thrives, new research warns.
• California, EPA Poised to Expand Pollution of Potential Drinking Water (Pro Publica):
  A little-known program under federal environment law is being used to permit oil and gas companies to inject waste into the state’s aquifers, even as the thirst for groundwater grows.
• U.S. Funding for Fighting Zika Virus Is Nearly Spent, C.D.C. Says (NY Times):
  The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday that federal funds to fight the Zika virus were nearly exhausted, and that if Congress did not replenish them soon, there would be no money to fight a new outbreak.
• Lead Tests on NY City Schools’ Water May Have Masked Scope of Risk (NY Times):
  Given other safety measures in place, officials assured parents, the water was safe to drink. But a review of how the testing was conducted suggests that the amount of lead in the water that students consume could be greater than the results indicate.
• Thousands of Homes Keep Flooding, Yet They Keep Being Rebuilt Again (Yale e360))
  The U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, which holds policies for more than 5 million homes, is $23 billion in debt after a string of natural disasters this century. As climate change further strains the program, analysts say it is time to shift its focus from rebuilding to mitigating risk.
• Floridians Overwhelmingly Support Solar In Tuesday Vote (Climate Progress):
  A ballot measure approved Tuesday improves the economics of solar in the Sunshine State.
• Poisonous Algae Blooms Threaten People, Ecosystems Across U.S. (NPR):
  Serious algae outbreaks have hit more than 20 states this summer. Organisms are shutting down beaches in Florida, sickening swimmers in Utah and threatening ecosystems in California.
• Colorado voters won’t get to decide on new fracking rules: (Climate Progress):
  Under Colorado law, 98,492 valid signatures — 5 percent of the number of votes cast for the office of Colorado secretary of state in the most recent election— are required to get a measure on the ballot. The state then verifies a random sample of submitted signatures and calculates the overall validity of the submission. In this case, the state audit found that support for Initiatives 75 and 78 fell short.
• In Scathing Review, EPA’s Science Advisors Tell Agency Not to Downplay Fracking-Related Water Contamination (DeSmog Blog):
  On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific advisors finished their review of EPA’s national study on fracking and sternly rebuked the EPA for claiming that its draft study had found no evidence of “widespread, systemic” impacts to drinking water. The EPA had not provided the evidence to support that claim, the Science Advisory Board (SAB) peer review panel found.
• Secret ‘Chemtrail’ Spraying Not Real, Scientists Agree (ENS):
  Long-lasting white trails left behind by aircraft are caused by well-understood physical and chemical processes, not a secret, large-scale atmospheric spraying program, concludes new research from Carnegie Science, University of California-Irvine, and the nonprofit Near Zero.
• Environmental records shattered as climate change ‘plays out before us’ (Guardian UK):
  Temperatures, sea levels and carbon dioxide all hit milestones amid extreme weather in 2015, major international ‘state of the climate’ report finds.

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

• NASA climate change video: This is the U.S. in 2100 (NASA).