‘Green News Report’ – April 9, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Upper Midwest braces for another bomb cyclone and more flooding thereafter; Growing humanitarian crisis in Africa in wake of Cyclone Idai; Global warming pushing the Arctic into ‘unprecedented’ new state; PLUS: Republicans are suddenly coming up with own climate policy to counters Democrats’ popular Green New Deal… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): This is how human extinction could play out; Green New Deal fan stumps Fox News reporter in viral video; Earth’s CO2 levels highest in 3 million years; Navajo reservation votes to shift from coal to renewables; Congress approves 7-state Colorado River drought contingency deal; Crude oil shipments in Oregon increased while keeping regulators in the dark; Harbour Air set to become the first all-electric airline in the world; EPA IG issues rare ‘alert’ that EPA’s data on toxics releases is inaccurate… PLUS: As White House questions climate change, U.S. military is planning for it… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Upper Midwest braces for another bomb cyclone and more flooding thereafter:
• VIDEO: Blockbuster blizzard could impact states hit by “bomb cyclone” weeks ago (CBS News)
• Flooded Parts of the Midwest Could Be Hit With Major Snow This Week (Earther):
  But textbook definitions aside, this storm poses a serious risk to the region still recovering from flooding last month.
• Huge spring storm likely to unleash blizzard, high winds and flooding in the Central U.S. midweek (Washington Post):
  [T]he biggest story from this storm sequel might be the predicted heavy and wind-blasted snow from South Dakota to southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. But that’s just part of the story. To the south of the snow in the Great Plains, the potent winds may also whip up fires.
• Midwestern Towns Prepare to Navigate More Flooding (and a Climate-Denying President) (Rolling Stone):
  “Before I came into office 15 years ago, I was told not to worry about flooding because there had been a 100-year & a 500-year flood…it wasn’t going to happen again. Since that time we’ve had something nearly every year & sometimes twice in one year.”
• Growing humanitarian crisis in Africa in wake of Cyclone Idai:
• Mozambique’s Beira buckles as it bears the brunt of Cyclone Idai (Al Jazeera):
  Arrivals are only projected to increase as relief agencies reach affected villages that were previously inaccessible, but camp facilities are overstretched and some people are already struggling to find a space in which to recuperate.
• In Need Of Blankets, Pain Killers, Pill Refills: Life After Cyclone Idai (NPR)
• After cyclone and cholera, Mozambique now battles hunger (AP)
• Combating cholera in Mozambique (World Health Organization)
• In the Wake of Cyclone Idai, the North Has a Climate Debt to Pay (Counterpunch)
• Global warming pushing Arctic into “unprececented” new state:
• Key indicators of Arctic climate change: 1971–2017 (Environmental Research Letters)
• Global Warming Is Pushing Arctic Toward ‘Unprecedented State,’ Research Shows (Inside Climate News):
  Rising temperatures are triggering cascading effects across the polar region, from diminishing ice to changes in when plants flower and where wildlife is found.
• Researchers Warn Arctic Has Entered ‘Unprecedented State’ That Threatens Global Climate Stability (DeSmog Blog):
  “I didn’t expect the tie-in with temperature to be as strong as it was,” Walsh said. “All the variables are connected with temperature. All components of the Arctic system are involved in this change.”
• Future Arctic won’t look like the Arctic we know now, says report (CBC):
  Taken together the indicators describe, as the report puts it, an “Arctic biophysical system … now clearly trending away from its 20th century state and into an unprecedented state.”
• The Bering Sea Should Be Frozen Right Now. It Isn’t. (Live Science):
  Arctic sea ice should be reaching its annual maximum right now…But 2019 already has the lowest Arctic sea ice extent on record (beating 2018, which was also a record-breaker). And that’s manifesting in an unseasonably liquid sea off Alaska’s northwest coast.
• Bering Sea Appears Largely Ice-Free from NOAA-20 (NOAA)
• Republicans scrambling to come up with their own climate policy:
• VIDEO: Rep. Matt Gaetz Introduces “Green Real Deal”: We Can’t Regulate Our Way Out Of Climate Change (Real Clear Politics)
• Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz who wants to ban the EPA just pitched an alternative to Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal (CNBC)
• “Innovation”: the latest GOP smokescreen on climate change policy (Vox)
• Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s New Climate “Plan” Sucks (Miami New Times):
  Gaetz’s plan includes literally no carbon-emitting regulations at all. Gaetz did this on purpose: He’s transparently stated that he hopes to save the world without all those pesky “government regulations” in Ocasio-Cortez’s plan…Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal also includes incentives and investments in solar power and similar tech. The problem with Gaetz’s plan is it’s feckless: He is effectively banking on the idea that scientists will invent a magic carbon-capture technology in the next few years that will save the planet.
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Republican Matt Gaetz’s Climate Change Proposal is ‘Weak’ and ‘Lame’ (Newsweek)

‘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

• This Is How Human Extinction Could Play Out (Rolling Stone)
• VIDEO: The Green New Deal Fan on Fox News Wasn’t a Random Diner. He’s a Climate Activist. (The New Republic)
• Last time CO2 levels were this high, sea levels were 60 feet higher and Antarctica had trees (Climate Progress)
• Earth’s carbon dioxide levels highest in 3 million years, study says (USA Today)
• On The Navajo Reservation, Turning From Coal To Renewables (NPR)
• Sunday morning political shows cover climate change in March thanks to Democratic presidential hopefuls (Media Matters)
• Climate Activists Have Their Next Target: The DNC Debates (Mother Jones)
• Congress Approves Seven-State Colorado River Drought Contingency Deal (The Hill)
• Crude Shipments Quietly Increased In Oregon, With Regulators In the Dark (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• As White House questions climate change, U.S. military is planning for it (Washington Post)
• Harbour Air set to become the first all-electric airline in the world (Aviation CV)
• Survey: More Mexican Gray Wolves Roaming Southwestern US (AP)
• Utilities See Green in the Electric Vehicle Charging Business — and Growing Competition (Inside Climate News)
• EPA IG Issues Rare ‘Alert’ That Data On Toxics Releases Is Inaccurate (The Hill)
• Marine plastic pollution costs up to $2.5 trillion per year (The Weather Network)
• Trump EPA weighs reviving massive Mississippi flood project (AP)
• John Kerry: Ocasio-Cortez offered ‘more leadership in one day’ than Trump on climate (The Hill)
• Climate science committee disbanded by Trump re-emerges with new report aimed at local governments (Climate Progress)
• SEJ Backgrounder: Green New Deal Proposes Sweeping Economic Transformation (Society of Environmental Journalists)
• Explainer: The ‘Green New Deal’: Mobilizing for a just, prosperous, and sustainable economy (New Consensus)
• 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).