‘Green News Report’ – October 31, 2019

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Nation’s largest coal company files for bankruptcy; California wildfires and blackouts hold ominous warning for every state in the nation; New research warns severe flooding for coastal cities will arrive faster than predicted; PLUS: Major auto-companies side with Trump Administration against California on auto emissions… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): This perfect shitstorm crystallizes the climate crisis we all face; Big Oil wants your love, and it’s using Obama to get it; Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ gets even more toxic — residents fight back; Greta Thunberg rejects major climate award: “start listening”; Keystone pipeline leaks oil [again]; FPL wants to run Turkey Point’s nuclear reactors for 80 years; Prolonged Missouri River flooding could last all winter… PLUS: Captured By Coal: ‘Like a death in the family… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Nation’s largest coal company files for bankruptcy:
• Murray Energy Is 8th Coal Company in a Year to Seek Bankruptcy (NY Times)
• VIDEO: President Trump’s Remarks at Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh (C-SPAN)
• Initial Relief Granted in Murray Energy Bankruptcy Hearing (Wheeling News-Register)
• America’s largest private coal miner files for bankruptcy (CNN)
• California’s wildfire disasters are an ominous warning for infrastructure in every state:
• Fire conditions near LA prompt the National Weather Service to issue its first-ever extreme red flag warning (CNN)
• Reagan Library spared from flames as powerful wind gusts drive new wildfire near Los Angeles (Washington Post):
  Ventura County firefighters had several strike teams in place at the Reagan Library, and intensive aerial attacks from helicopters and a DC-10 tanker kept the flames off the hilltop where the building sits. The library’s safety was far from certain, though, during a morning when conditions conspired against hundreds of firefighters on the ground.
• VIDEO: Prof. Leah Stokes – Fueled by Climate Change, California’s Raging Wildfires Are Threatening Vulnerable Communities First (Democracy Now)
• VIDEO: Powerful winds fuel more California wildfires. Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli explains the climate context (CBS News)
• Editorial: Climate change has set California on fire. Are you paying attention? (LA Times Editorial Board)
• Warming Will Cost Rich and Poor Countries Alike (Scientific American)
• How you can prepare for wildfires (LA Times)
• Study projects severe flooding will inundate coastal cities faster than predicted:
• New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding (Nature Communications)
• Rising sea levels pose threat to homes of 300m people – study (Guardian UK):
  The upward revision is based on a more sophisticated assessment of the topography of coastlines around the world…“As the tideline rises higher than the ground people call home, nations will increasingly confront questions about whether, how much and how long coastal defences can protect them.”
• Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows (NY Times):
  Standard elevation measurements using satellites struggle to differentiate the true ground level from the tops of trees or buildings, said Scott A. Kulp, a researcher at Climate Central and one of the paper’s authors. So he and Benjamin Strauss, Climate Central’s chief executive, used artificial intelligence to determine the error rate and correct for it.
• New climate research suggests worse coastal flooding—sooner (Bulleting of the Atomic Scientists):
  According to new research published by Climate Central (itself a sort of summary of what just appeared in the new peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications), within three decades chronic flooding would drive 300 million people from their land. In other words, 30 years from now, not 80.
• VIDEO: New Study: 300 Million Face Severe Risk of Climate-Fueled Coastal Flooding by 2050 (Democracy Now)
• Big Auto Split: Some carmakers side with Trump Admin. against California:
• Why automakers splintered over Trump’s emissions war with California (Axios)
• GM, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler back Trump on California emissions challenge (Reuters):
  In their filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the automakers and the National Automobile Dealers Association said they backed the administration bid to bar individual emissions rules by states.
• General Motors Sides With Trump in Emissions Fight, Splitting the Industry (NY Times):
  “We are disappointed in the Association of Global Automakers for hiding behind the Trump administration’s skirts and its assault on public health,” she said. California, she said, would “keep working with those automakers committed to a framework that delivers cleaner vehicles that benefit consumers and the environment.”
• Trump thanks GM, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota on California emissions fight (Reuters)
• VIDEO: Former CA Gov. Jerry Brown testifies to House Overight Sub-Committee Hearing, “Trump’s Wrong Turn on Clean Cars: The Effects of Fuel Efficiency Rollbacks” (House Oversight Committee)
• ‘General Motors better wake up’ before China takes EV market, former California Gov. Brown tells Congress (Utility Dive)
• VIDEO: Jerry Brown speaks to Congress on cars and climate change (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists):
  Brown…warned that rolling back standards while China and Europe work to achieve independence from fossil fuels will leave the US auto industry behind, undermine the US economy, and threaten global health and security for generations.Here are some highlights from his testimony…
• By siding with Trump on emissions, GM, Chrysler and Toyota are asking for industry chaos (Michael Hiltzik, LA Times)
• White House Pressed Car Makers to Join Its Fight Over California Emissions Rules (NY Times):
  Andrew Olmem, a top policy aide to Mr. Trump, began calling car companies to push them to sign on to the administration’s effort in the courts to eliminate California’s right to set its own auto emissions rules…[B]ehind the scenes, automakers have expressed concerns over an administration that has shown a willingness to reward or retaliate against other industries.
• Boycott these car makers over climate (Editorial Board, NJ Star-Ledger)
• Toyota’s Support of Trump Emissions Rules Shocks Californians (NY Times)
• Trump just started a huge legal battle with California over lowering car emission standards (Vox, 9/18/2019)

‘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

• This Perfect Shitstorm Crystallizes the Climate Crisis We Face (Earther)
• Big Oil wants your love, and it’s using Obama to get it (Heated.world)
• Captured By Coal: ‘Like a Death in the Family’ (Grist)
• Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Gets Even More Toxic — Residents Fight Back (Rolling Stone)
• We Need to Plan Ahead for the Narwhal Slope (The Breakthrough Institute)
• ‘Start Listening’: Greta Thunberg Rejects Major Environmental Award (NPR)
• Keystone pipeline leaks oil [again] in northeastern North Dakota (AP)
• Trump is officially withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. That won’t change much. (Washington Post)
• FPL wants to run Turkey Point’s nuclear reactors for 80 years. Regulators grant a key OK (Miami Herald)
• Maui County to sue fossil fuel companies over costs of climate change (Hawaii News Now)
• Prolonged Missouri River flooding could last all winter (AP)
• US official: Research finds uranium in Navajo women, babies (AP)
• What Does ’12 Years to Act on Climate Change’ (Now 11 Years) Really Mean? (Inside Climate 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).