‘Green News Report’ – January 29, 2019

Follow @GreenNewsReport…

(Or use “Click here to listen…” link below.)

IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Bracing for an Arctic blast across America, and yes, it’s linked to global warming; Hundreds dead after mining waste dam collapse in Brazil; Trump’s government shutdown is over, for now, but some damage is irreversible; PLUS: 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are pushing for action on climate change… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Germany to close all 84 of its coal-fired power plants, will rely primarily on renewable energy; Across America, climate change is already disrupting lives; Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost to public health; ‘Under siege’, oil industry mulls raising returns and PR game; Methane Bomb in the Arctic: How imminent is the threat?; Montana’s forests once helped blunt climate change. Now they contribute to it; Solutions to climate change get short shrift on broadcast TV news; Caterpillar unveils an all-electric 26-ton excavator… PLUS: VIDEO: Greta Thunberg issues climate warning at Davos: ‘I want you to panic’… PLUS:

… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Hundreds missing in Brazil mine tailings dam collapse:
• Searchers probe deep mud from Brazil dam breach; 65 dead (AP)
• Brazil dam collapse: bodies pulled from toxic mud as hope fades for survivors (Guardian UK)
• After Brazil dam disaster, Vale asks for forgiveness, gets fury (Reuters)
• Brazil to seek criminal charges against Vale after deadly dam collapse (CBS MarketWatch)
• Rescue efforts resume at site of Brazil dam collapse after fears of another breach trigger evacuations (Washington Post)
• Brazilian Tailings Dam Failure Highlights Pebble Mine’s Risk to Bristol Bay (NRDC, 11/6/2015)
• Bracing for a ‘life-threatening’ blast of cold across much of America:
• VIDEO Al Roker on the Polar vortex: Sub-zero temperatures hit much of US (NBC Today Show)
• Brace for the Polar Vortex; It May Be Visiting More Often (NY Times):
  “They are definitely becoming more common,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center. …[B]ecause of changes to the polar vortex, when wintry weather does arrive, it’s often more intense — witness the four back-to-back nor’easters last year.
• What is the polar vortex and is global warming to blame? (CBS News):
  While it may not seem to make sense at first glance, scientifically it’s consistent with the extremes expected from climate change.
• Winter is Warming. Really. (Climate Crocks)
• How frigid polar vortex blasts are connected to global warming (The Conversation)
• If the Earth Is Warming, Why Is It So Cold Outside? (NY Times)
• Projected changes in persistent extreme summer weather events: The role of quasi-resonant amplification (Science)
• Trump’s government shutdown led to irreversible damages, opportunity costs:
• The government shutdown cost the economy $11 billion, including a permanent $3 billion loss, Congressional Budget Office says (CNBC)
• The shutdown cost the US economy $3 billion that isn’t coming back (Vox)
• Assessing Effects of Government Shutdown on Wildfires, Workforce, Research (Bloomberg):
  Ecologists and conservationists are bracing for lasting damage on the nation’s public lands and wild places – herons poached from Florida’s Everglades, felled desert succulents that would take decades to regrow, defaced relics from rocky outcroppings in the West.
• Trump’s Shutdown Has Led To A ‘Slow Strangling’ Of American Science (Huffington Post)
• End of U.S. shutdown won’t mean return to business as usual for research agencies (Science Magazine)
• Some National Parks Reopen as Others Prepare for Cleanup Following Chaotic Shutdown (Earther)
• National Parks Suffered Irreparable Damage During the Shutdown (Pacific Standard)
• Death Valley playas damaged by offroaders during shutdown (Guardian UK)
• Experts Are Assessing the Damage Done to Joshua Tree During the Shutdown—and It’s Grim (LA Magazine):
  “What’s happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years,” Curt Sauer, a former superintendent of the park, said during a rally over the weekend.
• 2020 Democratic presidential candidates push for action on climate change:
• VIDEO: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks at Columbia College (The State, Columbia College)
• VIDEO: Sen. Kamala Harris gives the green light to the “Green New Deal” (CNN)
• Kirsten Gillibrand doesn’t just support the ‘idea’ of a Green New Deal, she’s wholly behind it (Grist)
• Elizabeth Warren Put the Green New Deal on Her Presidential Platform (Paste Magazine)
• Kamala Harris endorses Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’ (The Hill)
• 2020 Dems embrace climate, but will voters? (E&E News)
• The biggest questions so far about the 2020 Democratic primary, 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

• Gone in a Generation: Across America, climate change is already disrupting lives (Washington Post)
• VIDEO: Greta Thunberg issues climate warning at Davos: ‘I want you to panic’ (Guardian UK)
• Germany to close all 84 of its coal-fired power plants, will rely primarily on renewable energy (LA Times)
• Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost to public health (AP)
• ‘Under siege’, oil industry mulls raising returns and PR game (Reuters)
• VIDEO: Methane Bomb in the Arctic: How Imminent the Threat? (Climate Crocks)
• Montana’s forests once helped blunt climate change. Now they contribute to it. (Washington Post)
• Irish Court to Decide If Country Must Strengthen Its Climate Plan (Climate Liability News)
• Solutions to climate change get short shrift on broadcast TV news (Media Matters)
• The Climate Kids Are Coming: With a Green New Deal and Student Strikes For Climate, will young people save us yet? (The Nation)
• What keeps families in one of the most polluted places in California? (CalMatters)
• Caterpillar unveils an all-electric 26-ton excavator with a giant 300 kWh battery pack (Elektrek)
• Cod stocks on course to crash if ocean warming continues (Guardian UK)
• 7 Reasons Democrats Won’t Pass a Green New Deal (The Atlantic)
• Stuck and Stressed: The Health Costs of Traffic – The physical and psychological toll of brutal commutes can be considerable. (NY Times)
• Fourth National Climate Assessment, Vol. 2: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States [PDF] (U.S. Global Change Research Program)
• 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.

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).