‘Green News Report’ – July 18, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Yet another dangerous heat wave broils the U.S.; America to see ‘off-the-charts’ heat in coming decades; Land burned by wildfires in US has doubled over last 30 years; PLUS: Trump Administration moves to protect polluting industries from the tyranny of local control… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): “But the Greatest of These is Love”; How to feed the world without destroying the planet; The most important thing you can do right now to fight climate change, according to science; Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers fewer inspections; Fiscal collapse of coal towns increasingly likely; Brazil deforestation soars in July; Ohio Senate approves amended $1B nuke subsidy bill … PLUS: A GOP lawmaker thinks rise in Lyme disease is due to a secret tick experiment… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Yet another dangerous heat wave broils much of the U.S.:
• Widespread, oppressive and dangerous heat to roast much of the U.S. through the weekend (Washington Post):
  A heat wave featuring a life-threatening combination of heat and oppressive humidity has begun to spread across the United States, with excessive heat warnings and heat advisories in effect for at least 22 states and the District of Columbia.
• The U.S. Is Set to Roast This Week Under a Potentially Record-Setting Heat Wave (Earther)
• How to stay safe in this week’s heat wave (CNN)
• Heat wave is coming: How to stay safe and prepare an emergency supply kit (ABC):
  “During times like these, we all need to look out for each other. Be a buddy and check on your family, friends and neighbors who are at risk and help them get to a cooling center or another cool place – even if for a few hours.”
• Quantifying the influence of global warming on unprecedented extreme climate events (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
• U.S. could see ‘off-the-charts’ heat within 20 to 30 years:
• ‘Off-the-charts’ heat to affect millions in U.S. in coming decades (National Geographic):
  Within 60 years, hot days in the U.S. could be so intense that the current heat index can’t measure them.
• Increased frequency of and population exposure to extreme heat index days in the United States during the 21st century (Environmental Research Communications)
• Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues (PLOS One):
  Even under an optimistic climate scenario (RCP 4.5), we found that 77% of future cities are very likely to experience a climate that is closer to that of another existing city than to its own current climate.
• Days of 100-Degree Heat Will Become Weeks as Climate Warms, U.S. Study (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: Dr. Michael Mann on Euronews: Record heat and its tie-in with human-caused climate change (Climate Crocks)
• Here’s how hot your hometown will feel by midcentury (Grist):
  What exactly is considered “off-the-charts,” you ask? Those are days with conditions so extreme that they exceed the current National Weather Service heat index range, which stops at 127 degrees F. That’s a higher heat index than what we’re currently seeing in Death Valley in July.
• Your city probably won’t feel like itself in 30 years (Grist):
  The study looked at 520 major cities around the world and calculated which ones were expected to experience a climate more similar to another region by 2050.
• Doctors begin to raise climate change’s health effects with patients (NPR)
• New study predicts higher high temperatures for Florida thanks to climate change (Tampa Bay Times)
• Take action to prepare your community for extreme heat waves:
• Interactive map: Killer Heat in the United States: The Future of Dangerously Hot Days (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• Extreme Heat & Climate Change: How often will you endure extreme heat where you live? (Union of Concerned Scientists)
• Red Cross to World’s Cities: Here’s How to Prevent Heat Wave Deaths (NY Times):
  [C]ity officials, and, sometimes private employers, can take steps to save lives. The tips include what the federation’s president, Francesco Rocca, described as “really simple and affordable” measures…[T]he guidebook also offers a reference point for citizens to hold their lawmakers accountable.
• Heat Wave Guide For Cities [PDF] (International Red Cross)
• U.S. land burned by wildfires has doubled over last 30 years:
• Climate change is worsening wildfires, new study highlights (Climate Progress):
  Wildfires are a naturally occurring phenomenon and common to that wooded area, especially during warm weather when moisture evaporates from vegetation and dries out soil. But with temperatures spiking at record rates, the study notes, the already-active fire season is becoming more and more severe.
• California’s Wildfires Are 500 Percent Larger Due to Climate Change (The Atlantic):
  “Each degree of warming causes way more fire than the previous degree of warming did. And that’s a really big deal,” Park Williams, a climate scientist at Columbia University and an author of the paper, told me. Every additional increment in heat in the environment speeds up evaporation, dries out soil, and parches trees and vegetation, turning them into ready fuel for a blaze.
• Study bolsters case that climate change is driving many California wildfires (Earth’s Future/American Geophysical Union)
• Trump EPA to limit the tyranny of local control over pollution permits:
• E.P.A. Plans to Curtail the Ability of Communities to Oppose Pollution Permits (NY Times):
  The changes would eliminate the ability of individuals or community advocates to appeal against E.P.A.-issued pollution permits before a panel of agency judges. However, the industrial permit-holders could still appeal to the panel, known as the Environmental Appeals Board, to allow them to increase their pollution…Individuals who have filed appeals with the board said it offered an effective forum for people who could not afford to mount a full legal case.
• New York Times: EPA to limit ability to oppose pollution permits (CNN)
• Communities no longer able to appeal pollution permits under forthcoming EPA rule: report (The Hill)
• US Forest Service trying to bypass major environmental law:
• Forest Service Wants to Fast-Track Logging Without Environmental Review (EcoWatch):
  Environmental groups quickly spotted a new loophole in the law for commercial logging that would permit up to 4,200 acres of clearcutting, or 6.6 square miles, without any public involvement.
• U.S. Forest Service aims to speed up logging, infrastructure projects (Reuters):
  The agency’s proposals include vastly expanding the categories of project types that would be excluded from lengthy environmental assessments or impact studies, which it says would “save time and resources” and make it easier to repair infrastructure like roads, trails and campgrounds and protect the public from wildfires.
• Forest Service seeks to exempt some logging and mining from environmental review rules (LA Times):
  One of the revisions, for example, would eliminate the need to conduct an environmental study before allowing mining on land parcels up to one square mile in size… The revisions would also remove the requirement for many actions to be subject to public comment.
• The public has 60 days to weigh in on these significant changes. (High Country News):
  The proposed NEPA revisions comment period closes Aug. 12.

‘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

• But the Greatest of These is Love (Mary Annalise Hegler, Medium)
• How to feed the world without destroying the planet (National Geographic)
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers fewer inspections (AP)
• Fiscal collapse of coal towns increasingly likely, new research shows (Climate Progress)
• Earth just had its hottest June on record, on track for warmest July (Washington Post)
• The most important thing you can do right now to fight climate change, according to science (Climate Progress)
• Brazil deforestation soars in July, threatening EU trade deal (Reuters)
• Lead Paint Makers Reach $305 Million Settlement In Calif. Poisoning Suit (Reuters)
• Ag’s Climate Challenge: Grow 50% More Food Without More Land or Emissions (Inside Climate News)
• Ohio Senate approves amended $1B nuke subsidy bill (Utility Dive)
• Trump Drilling Leases: More Climate Pollution Than EU Emits In A Year (Guardian UK)
• A GOP lawmaker thinks rise in Lyme disease is due to a secret tick experiment. A scientist squashes that idea. (Washington Post)
• This Will Be a Sweltering Century in California and the Nation (KQED)
• 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).