‘Green News Report’ – August 27, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: International pressure and protests grow over record fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest; Democratic National Committee shoots down climate-focused presidential debate; Keystone XL pipeline clears another hurdle in Nebraska; PLUS: The President of the United States floated nuking hurricanes… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): David Koch escaped the climate hell he helped create; The Amazon rainforest fires are a form of ‘genocide’; If carbon offsets require forests to stay standing, what happens when the Amazon is on fire?; A trailblazing plan to fight CA wildfires; Summer on the swollen, flooded shores of the Great Lakes; Plan allows drilling, grazing near GSE national monument in Utah; Colorado electric cooperative to hit clean energy goal a decade early… PLUS: Much ado about Greta: Why does one Swedish teenager manage to drive so many pundits off the deep end?… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Tropical Storm Dorian forms, while still-recovering Puerto Rico braces for impact:
• Tropical Storm Dorian May Pass Near Puerto Rico as a Hurricane and Could Potentially Threaten Florida Labor Day Weekend (Weather Channel)
• Tropical Storm Dorian Targets Caribbean: Everything we know so far (Weather Channel)
• Puerto Rico declares state of emergency ahead of Tropical Storm Dorian (Axios)
• Tropical Storm Dorian could be hurricane when it approaches a Puerto Rico still in recovery (NBC News)
• President Trump jokes about trading Puerto Rico for Greenland, Puerto Ricans respond (MSNBC)
• Trump floated idea of nuking hurricanes:
• Trump suggested nuking hurricanes to stop them from hitting U.S. (Axios):
  The briefer “was knocked back on his heels,” the source in the room added. “You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘What the f—? What do we do with this?'”
• No, you can’t just nuke a hurricane. But there are other options. (Vox)
• Tropical Cyclones Myths Page (NOAA):
  Apart from the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach neglects the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.
• Trump Wants to Nuke His Way Out of Big Problems (The Atlantic):
  The president seeks bumper-sticker solutions to complicated problems, from hurricane prevention to border walls.
• International protests grow over record fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest:
• Brazil’s President Is Sending The Military To Fight The Amazon Fires As Protests Grow Worldwide (Buzzfeed):
  Faced with protests at Brazil’s embassies around the world and threats of economic pressure from other nations…[i]n a televised address that was light on specific details, Bolsonaro said soldiers would “survey and combat fire outbreaks” while also working to prevent environmental crimes in the Amazon — a reference to deforestation through illegal logging or land clearing by farmers.
• VIDEO: Indigenous leaders join climate activists at rally for Amazon Rainforest (Global News)
• VIDEO: Amazon fire protest rally held in front of Brazilian embassy in Munich (Global News)
• Rainforest on Fire: On the Front Lines of Bolsonaro’s War on the Amazon, Brazil’s Forest Communities Fight Against Climate Catastrophe (The Intercept)
• SOS From Brazil’s Amazon Fire Protesters: ‘We Need The World’s Help Right Now’ (NPR)
• We aren’t terrified enough about losing the Amazon (MIT Technology Review):
  [T]he concern is that as the forest shrinks, it would generate less and less rain. That would kill off ever more trees in a vicious loop that ends with large portions of the forests turning into grassy plains, in what’s technically known as “savannafication.”
• G7 offers aid for Amazon rainforest fires:
• Macron calls Amazon an issue for whole planet (AP):
  French President Emmanuel Macron says the Amazon, while mostly Brazilian, is a world issue and that his message to Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro is “we cannot allow you to destroy everything.”
• 5 Dumb Things That Cost More Than the $20M World Leaders Scraped Together for the Amazon (Splinter News)
• Brazil slams G7 aid offer as Amazon fires rage (AFP):
  “Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site,” [Onyx Lorenzoni, chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro] added, referring to the fire in April that devastated the Notre-Dame cathedral. “What does he intend to teach our country?”
• Amazon fires: Brazil sends warplanes to dump water on devastating blaze after international outcry (Independent UK):
  Jair Bolsonaro initially claimed government lacked resources to tackle flames.
• Amazon fires: Brazil to reject G7’s $20 million aid package (Axios)
• President Trump skips G7 meeting on climate change, and his excuse makes no sense (Salon)
• VIDEO: Trump at G7 on Climate Change “Dreams” (Climate Crocks)
• The Amazon in Brazil is on fire – how bad is it? (BBC)
• The Amazon rainforest is on fire. Climate scientists fear a tipping point is near (LA Times):
  Climate models suggest that the combined effects of deforestation and global warming could push the Amazon past a critical tipping point and turn two-thirds of the rainforest into a kind of degraded savanna, Nobre said. That’s because the Amazon creates its own weather. And if it loses that power, everything could change…One study found that deforestation of the Amazon would affect precipitation in North America, including in California and the Midwest.
• Amazon fires could accelerate global warming and cause lasting harm to a cradle of biodiversity (Washington Post)
• Big legal victory for Keystone XL pipeline in Nebraska:
• Nebraska Supreme Court upholds route of controversial Keystone XL pipeline (Omaha World-Herald):
  “We still have some tools (available),” said Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska. “We plan on making sure that this pipeline never touches our soil.”
• Keystone Pipeline’s Alternate Route Gets The Go-Ahead From Nebraska Court (NPR):
  A handful of Democratic candidates for president have also signed a pledge to revoke the permits already issued by the Trump administration, if they win office in 2020.
• A Last Ditch Legal Effort to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Has Failed (Earther)
• DNC shoots down initiative for climate-focused debate:
• Democratic National Committee votes against allowing 2020 candidates to participate in climate change debate (CNN)
• The DNC rejects a climate change debate and puts virtual caucusing in doubt (Vox):
  Climate change rarely receives a substantive prime-time policy discussion, so voters don’t often hear about it on television. A debate asking presidential hopefuls to walk through how they plan to cope with a warming world would be a public service and help educate voters who may not realize just how much a warming world will impact agriculture, the economy, health, and national security.
• Dear Democrats, the Mainstream Media Are Not Your Friends (The Nation):
  “We were depending on the media to explain the plan to people, and they had no interest in doing that.”…In their presidential debates, Democrats naively continue to put themselves at the mercy of reporters and pundits who are eager to prove that they are not the liberal patsies Republicans say they are.
• Fireworks at San Francisco DNC meeting as committee votes down climate debate resolution (San Jose Mercury News)
• While “The World Is on Fire,’ DNC Kills Resolution for Climate Forum (Common Dreams)
• VIDEO: Delaney rips DNC over climate debate rejection: ‘How does that possibly make sense?’ (The Hill)
• Jay Inslee Changed Everything (Earther)
• Bernie Sanders’ $16 Trillion Climate Plan Is Nothing Short of a Revolution (Earther)
• Andrew Yang: Still Dangerous (Earther)

‘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

• The Amazon Forest Fires Are a Form of ‘Genocide’ (The Intercept)
• If Carbon Offsets Require Forests to Stay Standing, What Happens When the Amazon Is on Fire? (Pro Publica)
• A Trailblazing Plan to Fight California Wildfires (The New Yorker)
• David Koch Escaped the Climate Hell He Helped Create (Earther)
• Summer on the Swollen Great Lakes (NY Times)
• Much ado about Greta: Why does one Swedish teenager manage to drive so many pundits off the deep end? (The Outline)
• Colorado electric cooperative to hit clean energy goal a decade early (Clean Energy News)
• Plan allows drilling, grazing near national monument in Utah (AP)
• Getting to 100% renewables requires cheap energy storage. But how cheap? (Vox)
• World’s largest all-electric ferry completes its maiden trip (Electrek)
• Indonesia will build its new capital city in Borneo as Jakarta sinks into the Java Sea (CNN)
• What Does ’12 Years to Act on Climate Change’ (Now 11 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate News)
• Heat Deaths Jump in Southwest United States, Puzzling Officials (NY Times)
• PG&E may answer the billion dollar grid modernization question (Utility Dive)
• Trump needs to understand the true importance of Greenland: its massive ice sheets must remain intact for Florida to survive (The Invading Sea)
• D.C. Circuit largely upholds Obama ozone standards (E&E News)
• 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).