‘Green News Report’ – April 23, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Gas prices set to spike again after Trump imposes new sanctions on nations that import Iran’s oil; Redacted Mueller report shows Russian trolls stoked divisions over climate and coal in 2016 election; European Union votes to curb plastic pollution; PLUS: The Big Apple goes big and green with its own Green New Deal… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Climate Change Worsened Global Inequality, Study Finds; Since the first Earth Day, the planet’s CO2 levels have gone off the rails; Ice Loss From Greenland Now Six Times Rate In 1980s, Scientists Find; Indiana chamber rejects ex-EPA chief Pruitt effort to keep coal-fired plants online; Nevada Aims to Rid Its Grid of Fossil Fuels; Losing Arctic Ice and Permafrost Will Cost Trillions as Earth Warms, Study Says; Arrests at London Climate-Change Protests Top 1,000; Ag Census: Is it a Farm if it Doesn’t Sell Food?… PLUS: We Asked All 2020 Democrats About Climate Change. Here Are Their Ideas… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Trump’s new Iran oil sanctions threaten to destabilize oil markets:
• VIDEO: Secretary Pompeo Announces End of Sanctions Waivers for Iranian Oil Imports (C-SPAN)
• No more waivers: The United States will try to force Iranian oil exports to zero (Washington Post):
  The use of sanctions threats to pressure adversaries and allies alike is not without risk. European allies have been working with Tehran to devise methods to circumvent U.S. sanctions as part of their effort to save the Iran deal.
• U.S. Moves to Stop All Nations From Buying Iranian Oil, but China Is Defiant (NY Times)
• Trump administration announces all countries importing Iranian oil will be subject to US sanctions (CNN):
  But given the ongoing crises in both Venezuela and Libya, which are two major oil supplying countries, there are fears that the US decision will make the oil market more unstable.
• President Trump Jolts Oil Prices, Sending Oil Stocks Soaring Today (Fox Business)
• IAEA Says Iran Abiding by Nuclear Deal (Arms Control Association)
• Manipulating Evidence to Justify an Attack on Iran (Washington Monthly)
• National Gas Price Comparison, 2016-2019 (AAA)
• Mueller Report details Russians sought to stoke divisions over climate, coal:
• Russians used coal to sow discord among Americans, says Mueller report (Grist):
  About a third of Mueller’s long-awaited report, released on Thursday, has been redacted. But enough is left to determine that Russia tried to exploit America’s mixed feelings about coal in order to tip the election in Trump’s favor…Coal was one of many issues used by the Russian trolls to drive a wedge between American voters, the report says.
• ‘Miners for Trump’: The story behind the Russian-organized Philly rally highlighted in Mueller’s report (Phildelphia Inquirer)
• Inside The Mueller Report, This Man Saw A Photo Of His Dad Being Used By Russians (NPR)
• European Union Parliament passes sweeping ban to curb plastic pollution:
• Single-use plastics: New EU rules to reduce marine litter (European Commission)
• European parliament votes to ban single-use plastics (Guardian UK):
  EU member states will have to introduce measures to reduce the use of plastic food containers and plastic lids for hot drinks. By 2025, plastic bottles should be made of 25% recycled content, and by 2029 90% of them should be recycled. The EU is also tackling the scourge of wet wipes that help to clog sewers in the form of “fatbergs”. The “polluter pays” principle will be extended to manufacturers of fishing nets so that companies – but not fishing crews – pay the cost of nets lost at sea.
• The problem with turning to paper after the EU’s plastic ban (Quartz):
  Swapping one single-use item for another is not a solution to the overall problem of massive resource use and massive waste production. Switching away from single-use materials altogether is the only sensical choice here.
• Federal judge delivers setback to Trump’s expansion of coal mining on public lands:
• Judge Delivers Major Setback to Trump Policy to Increase Coal Mining on Federal Land (NY Times):
  But the court ruling does say that the 2017 Trump administration policy, enacted by former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, to overturn Mr. Obama’s coal mining ban did not include adequate studies of the environmental effects of the mining, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, or NEPA, one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws.
• Judge: Resumption Of Coal Sales By Trump Admin Needs Review (MT Public Radio):
  The Obama administration imposed a moratorium on most federal coal sales in 2016. The move followed concerns that low royalty rates paid by mining companies were shortchanging taxpayers and that burning the fuel was making climate change worse.
• Judge: Trump can’t OK mining without environmental reviews (E&E News):
  Judge Brian Morris for the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana stopped short of requiring the broad programmatic environmental impact statement that Obama Interior Secretary Sally Jewell had begun, but he ordered Trump officials to initiate some level of National Environmental Policy Act review…The Northern Cheyenne Tribe also raised claims over the federal government’s trust obligations.
• The Big Apple goes big and green with its own Green New Deal:
• VIDEO: Mayor Bill De Blasio on NYC’s Green New Deal: [sectoin starts about 6:30] (MSNBC)
• New York City’s newly passed Green New Deal, explained (Grist):
  Making big changes to meet climate goals in New York City is tricky because so much of the city’s day-to-day operation–from public transportation to water, even its ability to ban plastic bags — is controlled by the state government. By focusing largely on local building standards, the city has been able to carve out green legislation within its jurisdiction.
• Big Buildings Hurt the Climate. New York City Hopes to Change That. (NY Times)
• New York City Sets Ambitious Climate Rules for Its Biggest Emitters: Buildings (Inside Climate News)

‘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 Worsened Global Inequality, Study Finds (Inside Climate News)
• Since the first Earth Day, the planet’s CO2 levels have gone off the rails (Mashable)
• Ice Loss From Greenland Now Six Times Rate In 1980s, Scientists Find (Washington Post)
• 7 things we’ve learned about Earth since the last Earth Day: We continue to shape life on Earth, and threaten our survival, in unexpected ways (Vox)
• Indiana chamber rejects ex-EPA chief Pruitt effort to keep coal-fired plants online (Reuters)
• Nevada Aims to Rid Its Grid of Fossil Fuels (Bloomberg)
• Losing Arctic Ice and Permafrost Will Cost Trillions as Earth Warms, Study Says (Inside Climate News)
• Washington state passes 100 percent clean electricity legislation (KIRO-TV Seattle)
• Southwest Pennsylvania Kids Breathe Carcinogenic Coke Oven Emissions (Environmental Health News)
• Americans’ Energy Use Surges Despite Climate Change Concern (AP)
• Arrests at London Climate-Change Protests Top 1,000 (Reuters)
• We Asked All 2020 Democrats About Climate Change. Here Are Their Ideas. (NY Times)
• Ag Census: Is it a Farm if it Doesn’t Sell Food? (Civil Eats)
• Poor Alabama Towns Struggle Under Stench Of Toxic Landfills (Guardian UK)
• Bloomberg Donates $5.5 Million To Fill In Paris Agreement Gap (The Hill)
• Cities Like Detroit Are Looking To Green Stormwater Infrastructure (Ensia)
• VIDEO: A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (The Intercept)
• This Is How Human Extinction Could Play Out (Rolling Stone)
• 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).