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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt uses the Bible to justify exploitation of natural resources; EPA to eliminate office that studies impacts of chemicals on children; New study finds communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of pollution; ExxonMobil withdraws from massive deal with Russia; PLUS: Good news and bad news for the environment in the courts… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Solar and wind power alone could provide 80 per cent of U.S. power; California agriculture faces serious threats from climate change; European agency concludes controversial neonicotinoid pesticides threaten bees; North Atlantic Right whales face extinction after no new births recorded; US solar company lays off hundreds of workers due to Trump’s solar tariffs; Judge orders CA to stop pesticide use; More than 100 cities around the globe get most of their electricity from renewables; Petcoke plant linked to asthma epidemic at elementary school… PLUS: Congress just got a whole lot of F’s on their report card… and much, MUCH more! …
STORIES DISCUSSED ON TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- Exxon withdraws from massive deal with Russia:
- Exxon to Quit Russian Oil Ventures Frozen by U.S. Sanctions (Bloomberg):
Exxon will post an after-tax loss of $200 million as a result of pulling out of the Rosneft deal but the true costs for the company run much deeper. Exploring and developing giant offshore fields in Russia was supposed to provide long-term growth for the company.
- Exxon Mobil Scraps a Russian Deal, Stymied by Sanctions (NY Times):
Under the last four years of sanctions, Exxon and other Western oil companies have been prevented from using their technological expertise to help Rosneft’s oil and gas development…In recent years, Rosneft has increasingly become a foreign-policy tool of the Kremlin, embarrassing its Western oil company partners.
- Exxon Mobil Fined for Violating Sanctions on Russia (NY Times, 7/20/2017)
- EPA Chief Pruitt believes the God wants humans to exploit natural resources:
- VIDEO: Unraveling the ‘Weaponization’ of the EPA Is Top Priority for Scott Pruitt (Christian Broadcasting Network):
Pruitt believes God commands us to take care of the environment and that also means to use what He has provided. “The biblical world view with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we’ve been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind.”
- Scott Pruitt vs. The Pope (The New Republic):
The EPA administrator has become the de facto spokesperson for a fringe version of Christian environmentalism…Some Christians wrongly believe that this passage “invites us to subjugate the earth, the savage exploitation of nature would be encouraged, presenting the image of human beings as ruler and destroyer,†Francis wrote. “This is not the correct interpretation of the Bible as intended by the Church.â€
- Scott Pruitt Is Gutting the EPA Because He Thinks It’s God’s Plan (Mother Jones):
“Is true environmentalism ‘do not touch’?†Pruitt remarked last year. “It’s like having a beautiful apple orchard that could feed the world, but the environmentalists put up a fence around the apple orchard and say, ‘Do not touch the apple orchard because it may spoil the apple orchard.’â€
- Scott Pruitt cited the Bible to defend his oil-friendly policies (Vox):
For many evangelicals, this idea of “dominion†is about mastery: Human beings have the right to take what they want from the earth, in terms of natural resources, without regards to how it might affect other species.
- Scott Pruitt Thinks Limited Government Is Divine (NY Magazine)
- Letter to Administrator Pruitt (Evangelical Environment Network)
- EPA: Black communities disproportionately bear burden of pollution:
- Trump’s EPA Concludes Environmental Racism Is Real (The Atlantic):
A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency finds that people of color are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air—even as the agency seeks to roll back regulations on pollution…As the study details, previous works have also linked disproportionate exposure to particulate matter and America’s racial geography.
- EPA study shows dangerous air pollution overwhelmingly impacts communities of color (Climate Progress),/li>
- In 46 States, People Of Color Deal With More Air Pollution Than White People Do, Study Finds (Buzzfeed):
[P]eople of color encounter the most air pollution in the US, increasing their risk of asthma, heart disease, and other illnesses.
- EPA proposes shutting down research office studying chemcial harm to children:
- Major EPA reorganization will end chemical research program (The Hill):
“The children centers were really the first and only centers to uncover the relationship with prenatal exposure to flame retardants and IQ deficiencies in children.â€
- Scott Pruitt plans to close an EPA office that studies how chemicals harm children. Is the EPA administrator trying to look like a movie villain? (Grist)
- What You Should Know About the EPA’s Proposal to Close Its Environmental Research Center (Earther)
- Trump administration dissolves EPA office that tests effects of chemical exposure on adults and children (Independent UK):
In 2016, one of department’s grant recipients discovered infants were being exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic through rice-based cereals…
- Good news, bad news for the environment in the courts:
- Trump once called Judge Curiel a ‘hater,’ but jurist now sides with him in border wall ruling (LA Times):
“It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”
- Judge Curiel, once attacked by Trump, rules border wall can proceed (CNN)
- Judge Strikes Down Sec. Zinke’s Delay of Methane Waste Rule (Pagosa Daily Post) [emphasis added]:
This marks the fourth failure to scuttle the BLM methane waste rule, which enjoys support from 75 percent of Westerners and in principle from at least one oil and gas giant — ExxonMobil — since the present administration took office. About $330 million worth of gas is wasted every year, $100 million of that in New Mexico. Wasted gas would rob taxpayers of $800 million in royalties over the next decade, cause unacceptable damage to public health, and exacerbate climate change.
- BLM moves on methane emission reduction rule; proposes to return to pre-Obama standards (Farmington Daily Times)
- BLM Proposes to Eliminate Emissions-Related Provisions of Currently-Postponed Waste Prevention Rule (Lexology)
‘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
- Stunner: Solar and wind power alone could provide four fifths of U.S. power (Climate Progress)
- California agriculture faces serious threats from climate change, study finds (Desert Sun)
- North Atlantic Right Whales May Face Extinction After No New Births Recorded (Guardian UK)
- US Solar Company To Lay Off Hundreds Of Workers After Trump Tariffs (The Hill)
- Judge Orders California Agricultural Officials To Cease Pesticide Use (LA Times)
- Congress Just Got a Whole Lot of F’s on Their Environmental Report Card (Mother Jones)
- Energy Department Review Led To Delays At Green Projects: GAO (Reuters)
- GOPers Claim Climate Caucus Credentials, But Votes Tell Another Story (Inside Climate News)
- Coke Plant Linked To “Asthma Epidemic†In Pittsburgh Elementary School (Environmental Health News)
- What Land Will Be Underwater in 20 Years? Figuring It Out Could Be Lucrative (NY Times)
- More than 100 cities around the globe get most of their electricity from renewables. (Carbon Disclosure Project)
- European agency concludes controversial neonicotinoid pesticides threaten bees (Science)
- EPA staff aired concerns on Pebble announcement — emails (E&E News)
- California’s attorney general puts polluters on notice with new environmental justice unit (Climate Progress)
- Black Lung Disease Comes Storming Back in Coal Country (NY Times)
- How $225,000 Can Help Secure a Pollution Loophole at Trump’s E.P.A. (NY Times)
- 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 Video: If we don’t act, here’s what to expect in the next 100 years:
2 Comments on “‘Green News Report’ – March 1, 2018”
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vaping helps addicts stop smoking cigarettes New Scientist
New Scientist February 17, 2018 page 23
Insight E-cigarettes
Switching to vaping will save lives
Clare Wilson
It is an unprecedented turnaround. E-cigarettes, once painted as a new and sinister health risk, are now being promoted as a public health lifeline – in the UK, at least. Yet if we want to make the most of their potential, healthcare staff need to put aside their preconceptions and embrace them more enthusiastically.
The rationale for vaping is clear. Regular tobacco smoking is one of the biggest lifestyle contributors to death and disease worldwide, causing heart disease, strokes and a long list of cancers. While the flavorings in e-cigarettes could in theory harm the lungs, vaping has been calculated to carry at most 5 per cent of the risk of smoking.
It is hard to quit smoking – about 90 per cent of attempts end in failure – but vaping makes it easier. By one estimate, the failure rate drops to 50 per cent when people become vapers instead.
For once, the UK has one of the most enlightened and progressive stances to a social ill. In many countries, the official stance is that the risks of vaping are unknown and it should be discouraged. In countries such as Australia, it is even criminalized.
Public Health England, on the other hand, has long been in favor of vaping, and last week called on companies and even hospitals to introduce vaping rooms, like old-style smoking rooms.
But there is another change that needs to happen if we want more people to switch. Vaping is not as easy to take up as smoking. There are several kinds of products available. The most basic version, sometimes called cigalikes, don’t give a quick enough nicotine hit to satisfy most smokers and people who start with these often relapse, says Caitlin Notley at the University of East Anglia, UK.
More complex e-cigarettes require purchasing several items in a kit, such as the device, nicotine liquid and charger, and some people need advice to start off. New users may also benefit from information on dosing and even how to inhale.
At the moment, those giving such help are generally the staff of the specialist vape shops springing up everywhere. A few doctors work with these outlets, visiting to provide health education materials and actively encouraging their patients to visit, Notley’s team found in a study published last week.
This is not common practice, though, partly because of e-cigarettes’ shady reputation. And not everyone is keen to get health advice from vaping shops, which often look like bars or smartphone stores.
In theory, pharmacies would be ideally placed to step in but again, anti-vaping sentiment has made them reluctant. The UK’s Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the body that represents pharmacists, told its members not to stock e-cigarettes at all in 2014, although many shops flout this, and that stance is now under review.
Notley has called for more health professionals to work collaboratively with vaping shop staff, who are often former smokers themselves and can be highly knowledgeable about their wares. “Most pharmacists could certainly learn from vape shops,” she says.
It’s not the most conventional way to combat a public health problem. But when you see a lifeline it makes sense to grab it with both hands. •
We are a bit behind in ocean research (On The More Robust Sea Level Computation Techniques – 9).