‘Green News Report’ – June 11, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: White House censors intelligence official’s Congressional testimony on climate change; India’s deadly heat wave triggers water conflicts; Defense Department omits ‘climate change’ from new Arctic strategy; Canada to ban all single-use plastics nationwide; PLUS: Former New York Mayor launches ‘Beyond Carbon’ initiative to take on our climate crisis… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Transportation Sec. Chao created special path for husband McConnell’s favored projects; U.S. Sec. of State on Climate – “People should just move”; EPA curbs state power to deny permits for climate concerns; Study says warming may reduce sea life by 17 percent; Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ could be record size this year; Alberta warned it could take 2,800 years to clean up oilpatch; Canada’s fire season off to ferocious start; Industrial methane emissions are underreported, study finds… PLUS: Procter & Gamble invented — and plans to open-source—new recycling technology… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• U.S. Southeast hit with another round of extreme rain and floods:
• The Midwest and Southeast can’t catch a break from floods. More are on the way. (Vox):
  Forecasters predicted the massive floods months ago…
• Month of rain in a day: Parts of Southeast deal with flooding, high water rescues (USA Today)
• Relentless rain leads to more flash flooding in the Southeast (ABC News)
• India’s deadly heat wave triggers water shortages and conflicts:
• India heat wave triggers clashes over water (Deutsche Welle):
  With temperatures nearing record highs across India, residents of some areas started fighting over access to water. Authorities in Madhya Pradesh have deployed police to escort water tankers.
• India heatwave: Desperation for water thought to have made 15 monkeys kill each other (Independent UK)
• With Record Temperature In 4 Cities, This Is The Worst Heatwave Ever (NDTV)
• ‘It is horrid’: India roasts under heat wave with temperatures above 120 degrees (Washington Post):
  The frequency of heat waves is also increasing, a government minister told India’s Parliament earlier this year.
• Heat wave rages on; 4 elderly pilgrims die in train (Times of India)
• White House censors intelligence analyst testimony on climate change and national security:
• White House blocked intelligence agency’s written testimony calling climate change ‘possibly catastrophic’ (Washington Post):
  The document lays out in stark detail the implications of what the administration faces in light of rising carbon emissions that the world has not curbed. “Absent extensive mitigating factors or events, we see few plausible future scenarios where significant — possibly catastrophic — harm does not arise from the compounded effects of climate change,” the document said.
• White House Tried to Stop Climate Science Testimony, Documents Show (NY Times):
  “I have never heard of basic facts being deleted from or blocked from testimony.” Mr. Ornstein said withholding the analyst’s written testimony was significant. A verbal presentation could be interpreted as an individual’s position, he said, but “the written testimony is a more formal expression of a department.”
• VIDEO: National Security and Climate Change (C-SPAN, House Intelligence Committee)
• Testimony from Rod Schoonover: ‘The National Security Implications of Climate Change’ (Washington Post)
• Trump Admin’s CO2 Champion Intervened To Quash Testimony On Climate Crisis (Talking Points Memo)
• Defense Dept.’s Arctic strategy omits mention of climate change:
• New U.S. Arctic strategy omits climate change, takes aim at China, Russia (Axios):
  The new strategy, which replaces one the Pentagon issued in 2016, makes mention of melting sea ice and increasing temperatures in the Arctic, but does not cite human-caused climate change as the driver of these trends.
• Canada to ban all single-use plastics by 2021:
• Ottawa announces plans to ban single-use plastics starting in 2021 at the earliest (CBC):
  He also revealed plans to make companies that manufacture or sell plastic products to take responsibility for recycling their plastic waste. “Whether we’re talking about plastic bottles or cellphones, it will be up to businesses to take responsibility for the plastics they’re manufacturing and putting out into the world,” said Trudeau.

• Canada to ban single-use plastics as early as 2021 (BBC):
  “As parents we’re at a point when we take our kids to the beach and we have to search out a patch of sand that isn’t littered with straws, Styrofoam or bottles,” Mr Trudeau said. “That’s a problem, one that we have to do something about.”
• VIDEO: Trudeau announces a Canadian ban on single-use plastics by 2021 (Global News)
• VIDEO: Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announces single-use plastics ban (Catherine McKenna, Twitter)
• Former NYC Mayor Bloomberg launches Beyond Carbon campaign:
• VIDEO: Michael Bloomberg, MIT commencement address (Michael Bloomberg, Twitter)
• Michael Bloomberg’s $500 million Beyond Carbon plan targets natural gas as well as coal (Electrek):
  Michael Bloomberg introduced more details about his Beyond Carbon campaign on Thursday, a $500 million plan to move away from fossil fuels and accelerate the US clean energy economy. The campaign aims to slow the nation’s gas boom while continuing the Beyond Coal campaign’s focus to shut down every coal plant in the country.
• Michael Bloomberg Promises $500 Million to Help End Coal [and natural gas] (NY Times)
• Michael Bloomberg Launches $500 Million Beyond Carbon Campaign To End Coal & Stop Gas (Clean Technica)

‘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

• Transportation Sec. Chao created special path for husband McConnell’s favored projects (Politico)
• Clueless: U.S. SecState on Climate – “People should just move..” (Climate Crocks)
• EPA curbs state power to deny permits for climate concerns (E&E News)
• In hot water? Study says warming may reduce sea life by 17% (AP)
• The Gulf of Mexico’s ‘Dead Zone’ Could Balloon to Over 8,000 Square Miles This Summer (Earther)
• Congress worries that climate change will force the U.S. to pay foreign governments millions. Here’s why. (Washington Post)
• Earlier, later and less predictable: How Canada’s forest fire season is changing — and why (CBC)
• Alberta warned it could take 2,800 years to clean up oilpatch (National Observer)
• Supreme Court To Hear BP Unit’s Dispute Over Montana Superfund Site (Reuters)
• Industrial methane emissions are underreported, study finds (Cornell University)
• Procter & Gamble Invented—And Plans to Open-Source—New Recycling Technology (Triple Pundit)
• Homeland Security watchdog retires early after office is forced to retract ‘feel-good’ disaster audits (Press-Herald)
• 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).