‘Green News Report’ – October 25, 2018

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Category 5 Super Typhoon Yutu slams into Mariana Islands and other U.S. territories; 2018 hurricane season now the most powerful ever recorded; New York sues ExxonMobil for defrauding investors about climate change; US Supreme Court stays landmark kids’ climate liability lawsuit; PLUS: Canada places a price on pollution with a national carbon tax… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): A Green New Deal is on the ballot in Washington state this year; Yes, ExxonMobil and Chevron are still distorting climate science; Three campaign ads that put climate change on the agenda; Austin, Texas, issues citywide boil-water notice after historic flooding; Trump threatens CA funding over ‘ridiculous’ wildfires; Report: More than 500,000 US households had water cut off; New report says world must boost efforts to suck carbon dioxide from the air; Ban entire pesticide class to protect children’s health, experts say; European parliament approves sweeping ban on single-use plastics… PLUS: How scientists cracked the climate change case… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Super Typhoon Yutu slams into Mariana Islands:
• Extreme Category 5 typhoon, the worst U.S. storm since 1935, leaves Northern Mariana Islands devastated (Washington Post):
  The extreme strike occurred with little warning, as the storm strengthened from Category 1 to Category 5 in just a day’s time before landfall. The maximum sustained wind speed increased by 80 mph over that time, resulting in a storm with gusts exceeding 200 mph. Scientists have recently suggested that such dangerous “rapid intensification” events, which also happened with hurricanes Michael and Florence, may become more common as the planet warms and the oceans heat up, providing additional fuel for storms.
• One of strongest storms ever slams Northern Mariana Islands (Axios)
• The 2018 Pacific and Atlantic hurricane season is the most powerful on record:
• 2018’s ‘especially astounding’ hurricane season is a warning of what’s to come (Climate Progress):
  “This record is especially astounding in the absence of a strong El Niño,” to warm up Eastern Pacific waters…”Storms are intensifying at a much more rapid pace than they used to 25 years back,” explained the author of a 2012 study on hurricane intensification trends. “They are getting stronger more quickly and also [to a] higher category. The intensity as well as the rate of intensity is increasing.”
• The Atlantic and Pacific Ocean hurricane season is most powerful on record this year (USA Today):
  When all the hurricanes and tropical storms that have formed in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans this year are added together, the 2018 hurricane season is the most active season ever recorded…To determine the strength of a given season, scientists use the “Accumulated Cyclone Energy” (ACE) index, which adds together the intensity and duration of all the tropical storms and hurricanes that formed. So far in 2018, the ACE for the Atlantic and eastern Pacific seasons together is 432 units of energy, shattering the record of 371, which was set in 1992, Klotzbach said…”We’ve already had 34.5 major hurricane days this year, which shatters the old record of 24 major hurricane days set in 2015,” Klotzbach said.
• New study reveals the possibility of hurricanes ‘unlike anything you’ve seen in history’ (Washington Post, 8/31/2015)
• Powerful Hurricane Walaka obliterates tiny Hawaiian island:
• “I had a holy shit moment, thinking ‘Oh my God, it’s gone’: This Remote Hawaiian Island Just Vanished (Honolulu Civil Beat):
  Scientists are concerned about what will happen to the hundreds of endangered species that once called East Island home… “I had a holy shit moment, thinking ‘Oh my God, it’s gone,'” said Chip Fletcher, a University of Hawaii climate scientist. “It’s one more chink in the wall of the network of ecosystem diversity on this planet that is being dismantled.”
• Hawaiian island erased by powerful hurricane: ‘The loss is a huge blow’ (Guardian UK):
  Despite its size, the island played an important role for wildlife, including the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, a species that numbers just 1,400 individuals, with many of the seals raising their young on East Island. Green sea turtles, which are also threatened, and seabirds such as albatrosses, which often had their young preyed upon by circling tiger sharks, also depended on the island.
• US Supreme Court stays kids’ landmark climate liability lawsuit:
• Supreme Court pauses kids’ case in win for Trump (E&E News)
• Young People Are Suing the Trump Administration Over Climate Change. She’s Their Lawyer. (NY Times)
• The Government Is Trying to Silence 21 Kids Hurt by Climate Change (The Atlantic):
  The U.S. has a climate policy, and it asks the Supreme Court to enforce it. That policy is: Donald Trump says there is no such thing as climate change. The rest of us, young and old, need to shut up and burn.
• The Supreme Court stepped in to stall a climate lawsuit. That’s really weird. (Vox)
• Supreme Court Grants Government’s Extraordinary Appeal, Pauses Kids Climate Case (Climate Liability News)
• Youth Plaintiffs File Response with Supreme Court Pointing to the Government’s Serious Mischaracterization of Juliana v. United States (Our Children’s Trust)
• NY Attorney General sues ExxonMobil for defrauding investors about climate change:
• A.G. Underwood Files Lawsuit Against Exxonmobil For Defrauding Investors Regarding Financial Risk The Company Faces From Climate Change Regulations (NY Attorney General)
• New York Sues Exxon Mobil, Saying It Deceived Shareholders on Climate Change (NY Times):
  The suit does not charge Exxon with playing a role in creating climate change, though the burning of fossil fuels is a major contributor to human-driven global warming. Rather, it says the company engaged in a “longstanding fraudulent scheme” to deceive investors, analysts and underwriters “concerning the company’s management of the risks posed to its business by climate change regulation.”
• New York sues ExxonMobil, saying it ‘misled’ investors about climate change risks (Washington Post):
  The New York lawsuit accuses ExxonMobil of assuring its investors that it was using theoretical prices for carbon in evaluating projects — from $20 to $80 a ton depending on the country — when in fact it often used a lower price or none at all.
• New York sues Exxon Mobil for deceiving investors about climate change (Climate Progress):
  Exxon Mobil’s alleged fraud reached the highest levels of the company, lawsuit says.
• CIEL Statement on State of New York Filing Suit Against ExxonMobil (Center for International Environmental Law)
• Canada to implement national carbon tax:
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is betting his reelection on a carbon tax (Vox):
  The revenue would be returned to citizens as rebates, which might change the politics.
• VIDEO: Full press conference – Trudeau announces carbon tax plan for provinces that don’t comply (CBC)
• Trudeau’s carbon tax rebate is smart – but complicated (Globe And Mail)
• Trudeau Imposes Carbon Tax, With Rebates, on Four Provinces (Bloomberg)
• Trudeau promises rebates as Ottawa moves to levy carbon tax on provinces outside the climate plan (CBC):
  Average household in Ontario stands to receive about $300 a year; Tories brand rebate payments a ‘gimmick’
• The 5 most important questions about carbon taxes, answered (Vox)

‘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

• Three Campaign Ads That Are Putting Climate Change on the Agenda (NY Times)
• Austin, Texas, issues citywide boil-water notice after historic flooding (NBC)
• Yes, ExxonMobil and Chevron Are Still Distorting Climate Science (EcoWatch)
• How Scientists Cracked the Climate Change Case: The biggest crime scene on the planet is the planet. We know the earth is warming, but who or what is causing it? (NY Times)
• A Green New Deal is on the ballot in Washington state this year: With the federal government AWOL on climate change, another state steps up. (Vox)
• Trump threatens funding over ‘ridiculous’ wildfires (E&E News)
• Mexicans recover after Willa’s ‘end of world’ onslaught (Reuters)
• Andrew Wheeler to oil and gas industry: Trump’s ‘new EPA’ will remove barriers (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Report: More than 500,000 US households had water cut off (AP)
• New report says world must boost efforts to suck carbon dioxide from the air (NBC)
• How the Farm Bureau’s Climate Agenda Is Failing Its Farmers (Inside Climate News)
• Ban entire pesticide class to protect children’s health, experts say (Guardian)
• European Parliament Approves Sweeping Ban On Single-Use Plastics (Guardian)
• EPA Proposes Reducing Cleanup Plans At Portland Harbor Superfund Site (Oregon Public Radio)
• People in the Autonomous Vehicle industry are realizing the problem they’re trying to solve is much trickier than they initially hoped (Thread Reader App)
• What genuine, no-bullshit ambition on climate change would look like: How to hit the most stringent targets, with no loopholes. (David Roberts, Vox)
• 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).