‘Green News Report’ – April 30, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Humanitarian crisis expands after back-to-back cyclones slam Mozambique; U.S. Interior Department delays offshore drilling expansion; Voters in Spain opt for a Spanish version of the Green New Deal; PLUS: Air pollution is getting worse again in the U.S…. All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release; Indonesia’s planning minister announces capital city move; Trump, top Democrats agree on goal of crafting $2 trillion infrastructure plan; Beto O’Rourke proposes $5-trillion climate plan for net-zero emissions by 2050; Cory Booker makes “environmental justice” central to his White House bid; UN report stresses urgent need for nature rescue plan; Climate-friendly farming is taking root in New York; ‘Biodegradable’ plastic bags survive three years in soil and sea… PLUS: How offshore drilling became a losing proposition… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Humanitarian crisis expands in Mozambique after back-to-back cyclones:
• Heavy rains disrupt aid for survivors of Mozambique cyclones (Washington Post)
• VIDEO: Gemma Connell, the Head of @UNOCHA_ROSEA, explaining the situation in Mozambique (U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Southern and Eastern Africa)
• Tropical Cyclone Kenneth death toll rises to 38 in Mozambique, officials say (CNN)
• Cyclone Kenneth Poses a Humanitarian Nightmare as it Slams Into Mozambique (Earther):
  “So now we’re looking at how do we get to next April when we have the next harvest opportunity,” Butters said. “People [are going to go] basically for a year without any any significant food source, which is the huge problem that’s going to continue for the next year.”
• Tropical Cyclone Kenneth Has Made Landfall and Is Making Catastrophic, Unprecedented Strike on Northern Mozambique (Weather Channel)
• IMF loan to Mozambique following Cyclone Idai “shocking indictment” of international community (press release, Jubilee Debt Campaign)
• Acting FEMA director warns Americans to do more to prep for extreme weather:
• FEMA Chief Calls for Changing Attitudes as Storms Get Stronger (Bloomberg):
  [H]e said those changes won’t be enough to deal with the effects of increasingly powerful storms. “We are just a bridge to safe, secure and sanitary,” Gaynor said. “We cannot be everything to everyone. This is a partnership.”…The escalating threat from unstable weather means that more people should carry flood insurance, Gaynor said.
• Acting FEMA Chief Gaynor Asks for Mindset Shift as Storms Strengthen [same article, no paywall] (Government Technology)
• New EPA document tells communities to brace for climate change impacts (Washington Post):
  The Environmental Protection Agency published a 150-page document this past week with a straightforward message for coping with the fallout from natural disasters across the country: Start planning for the fact that climate change is going to make these catastrophes worse.
• Taxpayer spending on U.S. disaster fund explodes amid climate change, population trends (Washington Post)
• Interior Dept. delays offshore drilling expansion:
• Court ruling to delay offshore drilling plan, Interior says (CNN):
  “Given the recent court decision, the Department is simply evaluating all of its options to determine the best pathway to accomplish the mission entrusted to it by the President,” spokeswoman Faith Vander Voort said…”By the time the court rules, that may be discombobulating to our plan,” Bernhardt told the Journal.
• Drilling pause could help Trump in 2020 (Politico)
• Interior abruptly pauses offshore drilling action following legal setbacks and bipartisan uproar (Climate Progress):
  South Carolina is an early primary state, but states like Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina also represent key areas where offshore drilling support could cost candidates dearly – including Republicans. That reality has been weighing on coastal Republicans, who have pushed hard for the Trump administration to pause its offshore drilling plans.
• U.S. still processing Atlantic seismic permits despite drilling plan delay (Reuters):
  The U.S. Interior Department is still processing permit applications for companies to conduct seismic testing in the Atlantic – a precursor to drilling – despite shelving its plan to vastly expand offshore drilling, a spokeswoman said on Monday.
• Offshore drilling ban proposed by bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers (Roll Call)
• Trump Administration moves to expand fracking in California:
• Trump Administration Plans To Open 1 Million Acres In California To Oil Drilling (Huffington Post):
  The Trump administration on Thursday released a plan to open up over 1 million acres of public and private land in California to oil drilling and fracking, which would end a five-year moratorium in the state on leasing federal public land to oil companies.
• Trump plan for fracking 1 million acres in California bad for Yosemite, opponents say (Merced Sun-Star):
  National parks and the Central Valley already suffer from poor air quality and fracking would only pile onto that problem, according to Mark Rose, National Parks Conservation Association’s Sierra Nevada field representative.
• Toxic air pollution getting worse again in the U.S.:
• State of the Air 2019 (American Lung Association)
• VIDEO: Trump claims U.S. has ‘record clean’ air. A new report says otherwise. (Climate Progress)
• More Than 141 Million Americans Are Breathing Unhealthy Air as Pollution Worsens (Time):
  The 2019 report found that more cities across the country experienced days of high ozone pollution, also known as smog, and short-term particle pollution, or soot, in 2015 to 2017, adding to “the evidence that a changing climate is making it harder to protect human health.” In some cities, year-round air pollution levels also increased.
• After years of progress, the number of Americans breathing polluted air is rising, report says (CNN)
• Voters in Spain opt for politicians pledging a Green New Deal:
• Spain’s socialists win election with Green New Deal platform (Climate Change News):
  Notably, the PSOE gained votes in coal mining regions where it has struck a major deal to shut the industry down. In October, the government agreed with unions and the industry that €220m will be injected into mining regions over the next decade, boosting retirement schemes and retraining.
• Spanish Socialists Running for Re-election Sunday on a “Green New Deal de España” (The Intercept)
• Running on Green New Deal, Socialists Prevail in Spain’s Snap Elections (Truthout):
  “With that the future has won and the past has lost,” said Sánchez at a victory rally.
• Spanish election: socialists win amid far-right gains for Vox party (Guardian *UK)

‘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

• Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release (Nature)
• Trump, top Democrats agree on goal of crafting $2 trillion infrastructure plan (Washington Post)
• Beto O’Rourke proposes $5-trillion climate plan for net-zero emissions by 2050 (LA Times)
• Cory Booker makes “environmental justice” central to his White House bid (CBS News)
• UN report stresses urgent need for nature rescue plan (Straits Times)
• Climate-friendly farming is taking root in New York (Grist)
• How offshore drilling became a losing proposition (CS Monitor)
• ERCOT’s reliability anxiety: Energy groups square off on what’s to blame (Utility Dive)
• ‘Biodegradable’ plastic bags survive three years in soil and sea (Guardian UK)
• VIDEO: Canadian floods roll on (Climate Crocks)
• Trump’s Environment Team Learns to Embrace the ‘Deep State’ (Bloomberg)
• Lindsey Graham admits Republicans need a climate change plan (Climate Progress)
• Indonesia’s planning minister announces capital city move (BBC)
• Clean energy technologies threaten to overwhelm the grid. Here’s how it can adapt. (Vox)
• Jason Kenney sworn in as Alberta’s 18th premier, names UCP cabinet (Globe and Mail)
• Corbyn launches bid to declare a national climate emergency (Guardian UK)
• Fracking tsar quits after six months and blames eco activists (Guardian UK)
• We Asked All 2020 Democrats About Climate Change. Here Are Their Ideas. (NY Times)
• 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).