‘Green News Report’ – May 23, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Beleaguered Midwest walloped by tornadoes and floods; New worst-case study finds Miami and other coastal cities could be inundated by century’s end; Louisiana unveils ambitious plan to retreat from rising seas; PLUS: Good news and bad as Trump’s EPA changes how it measures air pollution… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Deadly extreme weather is the new normal; Is modern life poisoning me? I took the tests to find out; 75+ business leaders lobby Congress for carbon pricing; Amazon investors reject proposals on climate change; An even more inconvenient truth: Why carbon credits for forest preservation may be worse than nothing; The challenge of lowering greenhouse gas emissions on farms; EPA curbs use of 12 bee-killing pesticides; ‘Mystery emissions’ of CFCs traced back to eastern China… PLUS: Trump’s love for infrastructure doesn’t extend to California’s high-speed rail project… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Beleaguered Midwest and Plains states walloped by tornadoes and floods:
• Tornado outbreak ravages Missouri, killing 3; widespread damage reported in Jefferson City (Washington Post)
• This is the devastation tornadoes and floods wrought in the central US (CNN)
• Central U.S. storms: 3 die in Missouri, “violent tornado” hits Jefferson City (Axios):
  A large tornado passed north of Joplin, Missouri, exactly 8 years after a twister there killed 161 people. Radar imagery detected debris lofted thousands of feet into the air as the twister traveled through small cities including Carl Junction and Oronogo, Missouri. Severe storms affected millions from Oklahoma to Illinois..Record rainfall has fallen in much of the Central U.S. this spring, with more than a foot in some places in the past few days, causing dangerous flooding.
• Another Mississippi rise threatens to trigger Morganza Spillway opening (NOLA)
• How climate change is affecting tornadoes (Pacific Standard, 3/30/2019)
• The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season starts early, again:
• Subtropical Storm Andrea Weakens to a Depression; Jaguar Roams the South Atlantic (Weather Underground):
  Monday, May 20 marked the first time in recorded history that simultaneous named storms existed in both the North Atlantic and South Atlantic.
• Andrea Is 1st Named Storm Of Atlantic Hurricane Season (NPR)
• Study projects sea levels could rise 6+ feet by 2100:
• Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment (PNAS)
• Miami, Other Coastal Cities May Drown in 80 Years, Study Says (Bloomberg):
  That’s the conclusion of a study published May 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that says rising seas could lead to the possible displacement of 187 million people as land totaling an area larger than Alaska is subsumed by the sea—a catastrophic climate scenario for which coastal communities must plan…“It’s time to realize that sea level rise is going to be with us for centuries, so it’s time to rethink how we build and live along the coast,” Oppenheimer said.
• Coasts Should Plan for 6.5 Feet Sea Level Rise by 2100 as Precaution, Experts Say (Inside Climate News):
  “Coastal decisions by and large require long lead times, and it would be nice if we could wait for the science to clear up, but we can’t,” one scientist said.
• Sea levels may rise much faster than previously predicted, swamping coastal cities such as Shanghai, study finds (CNN)
• VIDEO: Global sea levels could rise far more than predicted (Al Jazeera):
  “It was based on the assumption that we carry on increasing our emissions of greenhouse gasses into the future and sadly carbon emissions have carried on increasing even after the Paris Agreement of 2015,” he added.
• Louisiana unveils ambitious plan to retreat from rising seas:
• Our Land and Water A Regional Approach to Adaptation [PDF] (Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments):
  During the next 50 years, Louisiana is projected to lose more land and wetlands along its coast than it can rebuild, even if restoration efforts are completed as currently planned.With less wetland buffer, the state’s coastal regions face increased storm surge and flood risk that will impact families and communities in ways large and small, acute and chronic.
• Louisiana’s New Climate Plan Prepares for Resilience and Retreat as Sea Level Rises (Inside Climate News):
  People are already migrating inland as the ocean rises with global warming and the delta sinks. The state’s new plan looks at ways to ease the transition.
• Louisiana Unveils Ambitious Plan to Help People Get Out of the Way of Climate Change (Bloomberg)
• Trump’s EPA seeks to change how it calculates deaths from air pollution:
  • E.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of Pollution Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its Math (NY Times):
    The Environmental Protection Agency plans to change the way it calculates the health risks of air pollution, a shift that would make it easier to roll back a key climate change rule because it would result in far fewer predicted deaths from pollution, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans.
  • EPA Seeks Dramatic Change in Calculating Health Risks from Air Pollution (Weather Channel)
  • White House updates rule-busting agenda (E&E News):
    On another hot-button topic, the agency plans to release its preliminary decision in a legally required review of particulate matter air quality standards by next March. The review has been engulfed in controversy after EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler last fall fired an expert panel that was assisting in the assessment.
  • Cost of New E.P.A. Coal Rules: Up to 1,400 More Deaths a Year (NY Times, 8/21/2018)

‘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

• Trump’s love for infrastructure doesn’t extend to California’s high-speed rail project (CNBC)
• Deadly extreme weather is the new normal (op-ed, The Hill)
• Is modern life poisoning me? I took the tests to find out (Guardian UK)
• 75+ Business Leaders Lobby Congress for Carbon Pricing. Did Republicans Listen? (Inside Climate News)
• Amazon Investors Reject Proposals on Climate Change and Facial Recognition (NY Times)
• An even more inconvenient truth: Why carbon credits for forest preservation may be worse than nothing (Pro Publica)
• Transportation Is Illinois’ Biggest Source Of Pollution (WBEZ-Chicago)
• Meating In The Middle: The Challenge of Lowering Greenhouse Gas Emissions On Farms (Harvest Public Media)
• Inside a Southern Coal Conference: Pep Rallies and Fears of an Industry’s Demise (Inside Climate News)
• Clean-energy bill amended to shore up coal-fired power plants (Columbus Dispatch)
• Maryland General Assembly approves 50 percent renewable energy target for 2030 (Baltimore Sun)
• EPA Curbs Use of 12 Bee-Harming Pesticides (Bloomberg)
• A Trespass Law Aimed At Protesters Challenged In Court (AP)
• How we traced ‘mystery emissions’ of CFCs back to eastern China (The Conversation)
• Botswana, Home To Nearly 1/3 Of Africa’s Elephants, Lifts Hunting Ban (The Hill)
• They Grow the Nation’s Food, but They Can’t Drink the Water (NY Times)
  

• Should We Be Calling Climate Change a ‘Climate Crisis’? (Earther)
• PG&E to bury distribution lines serving fire-ravaged Paradise, California (Utility Dive)
• Teenage activists demand climate action on eve of global school strike (Reuters)
• This one weird trick can help any state or city pass clean energy policy (Vox)
• 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).