‘Green News Report’ – January 18, 2018

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Damaged and burning Iranian oil tanker sinks off the coast of China; Warmer temperatures on Great Barrier Reef causing green sea turtles to be born female; New study warns ocean dead zones have dramatically expanded; PLUS: Big shift at Detroit Auto Show as Ford goes all in on electric vehicles… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): 2017 was the 2nd hottest year on record; Interior Dept. blasts resigning NPS advisory board members; Could biodiversity destruction lead to a global tipping point?; Owning an electric car is twice as cheap as owning a gas vehicle; Study finds global warming exacerbates refugee crises; Climate scientists say they may be able to rule out the worst-case scenarios – and the best ones; Fracking lobbyists spend big at Trump hotel; Energy Dept. fires photographer over leaked photo of Perry-Murray hug; Leaky sewers may foster antibiotic resistance in streams; Controversial pesticides are killing endangered salmon… PLUS: Boiled bats and iced iguanas: How extreme weather affects wildlife… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Burning Iranian oil tanker sinks off the coast of China
• Oil spill off China coast now the size of Paris (CNN):
  Environmentalists and officials are worried the oil on board and fuel used to power the massive vessel could harm aquatic life for decades.
• Huge Oil Spill Spreads in East China Sea, Stirring Environmental Fears (NY Times)
• China planning to send robot sub to sunken ship (AP)
• Days After Oil Tanker Sinks, Large Slicks Observed In East China Sea (NPR)
• VIDEO: Iran oil tanker explodes, sinks off China with no survivors (USA Today)
• Coral bleaching events occurring too frequently to allow reefs to recover:
• Coral reef bleaching ‘the new normal’ and a fatal threat to ecosystems (Guardian UK):
  Study of 100 tropical reef locations finds time between bleaching events has shrunk and is too short for full recovery.
• Great Barrier Reef tourism spokesman attacks scientist over slump in visitors (Guardian UK)
• Coral Bleaching Is the New Normal: A true representation of the Anthropocene. (Motherboard)
• What Is Coral Bleaching? How Warming Ocean Temperatures Are Starving Reefs and Harming Marine Life (Newsweek):
  Coral reefs are starving to death, quite literally.
• Fiji PM: ‘We are losing the battle’ to save coral reefs (Al Jazeera)
• Ocean ‘dead zones’ expanding dramatically due to human pollution:
• Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn (Guardian UK):
  Areas starved of oxygen in open ocean and by coasts have soared in recent decades, risking dire consequences for marine life and humanity…“Right now, the increasing expansion of coastal dead zones and decline in open ocean oxygen are not priority problems for governments around the world. Unfortunately, it will take severe and persistent mortality of fisheries for the seriousness of low oxygen to be realised.”
• Ocean ‘Dead Zones’ Have Quadrupled Since 1950, Study Reveals (Weather Channel)
• Why Our Oceans Are Starting to Suffocate (Smithsonian):
  At the heart of the oxygen crisis is an unfortunate double-whammy effect tied to rising ocean temperatures, which themselves are linked to greenhouse gas emissions on the part of humans. For one, the solubility of oxygen is inversely correlated with water temp, so when ocean water gets hotter, the oxygen in the air does not dissolve as readily, meaning that there is less to go around for aquatic lifeforms. To add insult to injury, higher water temperature elevates the metabolic rates of sea creatures, so their bodies crave more and more oxygen as less and less is available.
• Great Barrier Reef: higher temperatures threaten green sea turtle species:
• VIDEO: Warmer temperatures at Great Barrier Reef causing sea turtles to be born female (Reuters):
  The study published last week revealed that more than 99 percent of the juvenile and sub adult population on the northern part of the reef are female, and 69 percent are female on the southern reef. The two populations are genetically distinct.
• Great Barrier Reef: rising temperatures turning green sea turtles female (Guardian UK):
  ‘Complete feminisation’ of northern population is possible in near future, researchers find.
• Big shift: Ford Motors goes ‘all in’ on electric vehicles:
• Ford Finally Makes Its Move Into Electric Cars (Wired):
  Chinese drivers buy half the world’s EVs, and new regulations demand manufacturers’ electric vehicles account for 12 percent of their Chinese sales by 2020. Ford won’t get there with one model, and it doesn’t want to give up on China, where it sold more than a million cars in 2017.
• VIDEO: Ford Goes ‘All In’ on Electric Cars (Bloomberg):
  The carmaker will shell out $11 billion bringing 40 electrified vehicles to market by 2022, Jim Farley, president of global markets, said during a presentation at the Detroit auto show. That’s up from the $4.5 billion that Ford said in late 2015 it would invest through the end of the decade. “This $11 billion you’re seeing, that means we’re all in now,” Executive Chairman Bill Ford told reporters in Detroit. “The only question is will the customers be there with us and we think they will.”
• Ford’s plan: 40 new electric vehicles in 4 years (Detroit News)
• Car Bosses Give Lukewarm Endorsements to Their Own Electric Lineups (Bloomberg):
  Global automakers, rarely shy about marketing themselves with glitz and confidence, are noticeably more sober about how customers may react to their own upcoming electric vehicle lineups.
• Infiniti says it will go ‘all electric’ (Detroit News)

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

For a comprehensive roundup of daily environmental news you can trust, see the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Daily Headlines page

• 2017 Was the Second-Hottest Year on Record: Even without El Nino last year, Earth keeps on warming (AP)
• U.S. Interior Department blasts resigning National Parks board members (Reuters)
• Boiled bats and iced iguanas: How extreme weather affects wildlife (Deutsche-Welle News)
• Could biodiversity destruction lead to a global tipping point? (Guardian UK)
• Owning An Electric Car Is Twice As Cheap As Owning A Gas Vehicle (Fast Company)
• Study finds that global warming exacerbates refugee crises (Guardian UK)
• Climate scientists say they may be able to rule out the worst-case scenarios – and the best ones (Washington Post)
• Norfolk Southern says oil spill cleanup complete, but Hamilton County commissioner demands more (Chattanooga Times Free-Press)
• EPA Official Declines To Testify At Superfund Hearing (The Hill)
• Fracking Lobbyists Plan to Spend Big at Trump Hotel (The Intercept)
• Energy Dept. Fires Photographer for Leaking Shot of Perry-Murray Hug (NY Times)
• Leaky Sewers May Foster Antibiotic Resistance In Urban Streams (Anthropocene Magazine)
• Waste Dumps A Burden For Minority Neighborhoods (WOSU)
• Govt Scientists Say Controversial Pesticide Killing Endangered Salmon (NPR)
• South Dakota Running Out Of Money For Pollution Control (Sioux Falls Argus Leader)
• State Dept Pledges Action on Montana’s Polluted Transboundary Watersheds (Flathead Beacon)
• Report: Almost 25,000 Texans Drinking Tap Water With High Radium Levels (Texas Observer)
• Chemicals: In Reversal, EPA Limits Information On Safety Reviews (E&E News)
• AUDIO: An Inconvenient ‘BradCast’ with Al Gore (The BRAD BLOG):
  Guest Host Angie Coiro’s exclusive interview with the former Vice President on elections, pollution, persuasion, activism, and hope…
• The Climate Risks We Face (NY Times):
  To stabilize global temperature, net carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. The window of time is rapidly closing to reduce emissions and limit warming to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the Paris climate accord. The further we push the climate system beyond historical conditions, the greater the risks of potentially unforeseen and even catastrophic changes to the climate – so every reduction in emissions helps.
• The Uninhabitable Earth: When will climate change make earth too hot for humans? (New York Magazine):
  Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak – sooner than you think.
• A beginner’s guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy (Vox):
  Clean-energy enthusiasts frequently claim that we can go bigger, that it’s possible for the whole world to run on renewables – we merely lack the “political will.” So, is it true? Do we know how get to an all-renewables system? Not yet. Not really.
• No country on Earth is taking the 2 degree climate target seriously (Vox):
  If we mean what we say, no more new fossil fuels, anywhere.

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).