‘Green News Report’ – September 13, 2018

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Officials warn Hurricane Florence could knock out power and other essential services for weeks; 10 million people are also in the path of Super Typhoon Mangkhut; Trump Administration diverted $10 million from FEMA and gave it to ICE; Trump EPA moves to make it easier for oil and gas companies to release methane into the air; PLUS: U.N. chief warns of dangerous tipping point on climate change… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Climate change wrought this freak of nature called Hurricane Florence; Administration announces plan to streamline oil and gas extraction in national forests; Top green group to spend an unprecedented $60 million on 2018 races; US ‘likely’ has taken over as the world’s top oil producer; Rush Limbaugh spreads disinformation on Hurricane Florence, climate change; Former EPA chief Pruitt in talks for his next job: coal consultant; Miss Michigan denounces Flint Water Crisis in Miss America intro; Heat killed a record number of people in Phoenix last year as days, nights grow warmer… PLUS: Category 6? Climate change may cause more hurricanes to rapidly intensify… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Hurricane Florence: potentially historic flooding could knock out power for weeks:
• Hurricane Florence starts its slow, prolonged assault on the Carolinas (CNN)
• Hurricane Florence Is a Public Health Emergency, Too (The New Republic)
• Hurricane Florence May Leave 3 Million Homes and Businesses Without Power (Bloomberg):
  “This is no ordinary storm, and people could be without power for a very long time — not days but weeks,” Fountain said on a call with reporters. “Hurricane Florence will be a life changing event for many people in the Carolinas.”
• Hurricane Florence’s potentially catastrophic path includes ‘at-risk’ nuclear power plants (Fox News)
• Hurricane Florence: Prisons in hurricane’s path not evacuated (BBC)
• Hog Farm Waste Could Become Environmental Hazard After Hurricane Florence (NPR)
• Farmers in Hurricane Florence’s Path Race to Harvest Before Storm Arrives (Bloomberg)
• Multiple, simultaneous tropical storms active in both Atlantic and Pacific:
• AUDIO: Fueling Florence (and, Concurrently, Eight Other Major Storms) with Meteorologist Guy ‘Climate Guy’ Walton: ‘BradCast’ 9/12/2018 (The BRAD BLOG)
• Seemingly overnight, the oceans are exploding with tropical cyclone activity (Washington Post):
  The Northern Hemisphere is facing an onslaught of hurricanes and typhoons, seemingly overnight. With three storms spinning in the North Atlantic — Hurricane Florence one of them — the tropics have exploded to life at the peak of the annual season. At the same, in the tropical Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut is the most intense tropical cyclone in the world, packing 170 mph winds. Why the remarkable uptick in activity?
• Philippines braces for worst typhoon of the year (AP)
• Super Typhoon Mangkhut Heads Toward Philippines and China (NY Times)
• VIDEO: Florence is Bad, but Not the Baddest Right Now (Climate Crocks)
• VIDEO: Climate scientist Kerry Emanuel on Climate and Hurricanes (Climate Crocks)
• Trump inexplicably boasts about federal response to Hurricane Maria:
• VIDEO: Trump: The best job we did was Puerto Rico (CNN)
• Rejecting Puerto Rican Death Toll, Trump Accuses Democrats of Inflating It (NY Times)
• Trump’s Puerto Rico conspiracy theory appears to have been triggered by a CNN segment (Media Matters):
  Roughly seven minutes later, the segment appeared to draw an unhinged response from the president, who denied that 3,000 had died in Puerto Rico as a result of the hurricane, baselessly blaming the evidence to the contrary on a conspiracy by Democrats to deny him credit for an effective response.
• Trump Administration diverts funds from FEMA to ICE:
• VIDEO: Trump administration diverted nearly $10 million from FEMA to ICE detention program, according to DHS document (Washington Post)
• VIDEO: Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR: FEMA funding ICE an evil partnership (CNN)
• VIDEO: Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR: Document shows DHS transferring $29M from Coast Guard to ICE (MSNBC)
• Trump administration took nearly $10 million from FEMA’s budget to support ICE, documents show (USA Today)
• Trump EPA moves to weaken methane emissions standards for oil and gas industry:
• EPA moves closer to rolling back Obama-era rules on methane
  (AP):
  The EPA noted that overall increased pollution as a result of its proposal “may also degrade air quality and adversely affect health and welfare.” Relaxing federal oversight will save $75 million in regulatory costs annually, the agency said.
• Trump EPA Targets Obama’s Methane Rules in Latest Climate Policy Rollback (Inside Climate News):
  Its proposal would weaken requirements for monitoring the potent greenhouse gas and give the oil and gas industry more leeway to waste energy by flaring or venting.
• Trump Administration Wants to Make It Easier to Release Methane Into Air (NY Times):
  Methane, which is among the most powerful greenhouse gases, routinely leaks from oil and gas wells, and energy companies have long said that the rules requiring them to test for emissions were costly and burdensome…In a related move, the Interior Department is also expected in coming days to release its final version of a draft rule, proposed in February, that essentially repeals a restriction on the intentional venting and “flaring,” or burning, of methane from drilling operations.
• Leaked EPA methane rule rollback would have resounding implications for human health and the environment (Climate Progress)
• UN chief Antonio Guterres warns on climate change, fossil fuel industry propaganda:
• VIDEO: Full remarks of UN Chief Antonio Guterres on Climate Change and his vision for the 2019 Climate Change Summit (United Nations)
• UN chief: World must prevent runaway climate change by 2020 (AP):
  Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday that the world is facing “a direct existential threat” and must rapidly shift from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent “runaway climate change.” The U.N. chief called the crisis urgent and decried the lack of global leadership to address global warming.
• VIDEO: ‘Direct existential threat’ of climate change nears point of no return, warns UN chief (United Nations News):
  The world is changing before our eyes. We are careering towards the edge of the abyss. It is not too late to shift course, but every day the world heats up a little more and the cost of our inaction mounts.
• U.N. Chief Warns of a Dangerous Tipping Point on Climate Change (NY Times)

‘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

• Climate change wrought this freak of nature (Eric Holthaus, op-ed, Washington Post)
• AUDIO: Rush Limbaugh on Hurricane Florence: “The forecast and the destruction potential doom and gloom is all to heighten the belief in climate change” (Media Matters)
• Administration announces plan to streamline oil and gas extraction in national forests (The Hill)
• Top Green Group To Spend An Unprecedented $60 Million On 2018 Races (Washington Post)
• EPA Assesses Threat To Some, But Not All, Superfund Sites In Florence’s Path (McClatchy DC)
• US ‘Likely’ Has Taken Over As The World’s Top Oil Producer (AP)
• Category 6? Climate Change May Cause More Hurricanes To Rapidly Intensify (Washington Post)
• Former EPA Chief Pruitt in Talks for His Next Job: Coal Consultant (NY Times)
• Miss Michigan Denounces Flint Water Crisis In Miss America Intro (Huffington Post)
• Untapped Nevada: Oil and gas companies make their move (E&E News)
• Idaho: Federal judge erred in scrapping leases that forced several landowners to sell their natural gas and oil to a Texas company (AP)
• Official defends Trump plan to revamp Endangered Species Act (A)
• ExxonMobil strikes deal with Alaska to feed LNG project (Platt’s)
• Heat killed a record number of people in Phoenix last year as days, nights grow warmer (AZ Central)
• National park officials were told climate change was ‘sensitive.’ So they removed it from a key planning report (Reveal)
• Analysis: California pledges carbon-free electricity by 2045. Gov. Brown says: “This is not a one-off.” (Washington Post)
• A Global Shift To Sustainability Would Save Us $26 Trillion (Vox)
• Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Global Warming (Drawdown.org)
• An Optimist’s Guide to Solving Climate Change and Saving the World (Vice)
• The great nutrient collapse: The atmosphere is literally changing the food we eat, for the worse. And almost nobody is paying attention. (Politico)
• The world’s bleak climate situation, in 3 charts: We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there. (Vox)
• 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).