‘Green News Report’ – November 12, 2019

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IN TODAY’S SPECIAL REPORT: It’s our 1000th Green News Report! Looking back and forward at a thousand episodes of the ‘GNR’ with a few messages from some friends and the funniest snarky comment of all time!… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): After boost from Sec. Perry, backers got huge gas deal in Ukraine; Australia Wildfires: emergency declared over ‘catastrophic’ danger; Bracing for climate impacts in the American Midwest; Drought-hit Zimbabwe readies mass wildlife migration; How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster; Thousands face life-threatening floods from aging dams… PLUS: The end of Florida orange juice?… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Climate and extreme weather tracker, Meteorologist Guy Walton:
• MAIN SITEGuy On Climate (Guy Walton’s weather blog)
• Today’s entry: Extreme Temperature Diary-Tuesday November 12th, 2019 – Early Season Cold Wave Setting Many Records Across North America (Guy On Climate)
• Buy Guy’s illustrated climate science book for kids: World of Thermo: Thermometer Rising (Amazon)
• Atmospheric CO2 levels have risen at a steady, fast rate since 2009:
• Climate Change: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (NOAA):
  The last time the atmospheric CO2 amounts were this high was more than 3 million years ago, when temperature was 2°–3°C (3.6°–5.4°F) higher than during the pre-industrial era, and sea level was 15–25 meters (50–80 feet) higher than today.
• Global average temperatures have risen steadily since 2009:
• World of Change: Global Temperatures (NASA Earth Observatory)
• Temperatures to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030-2052 without rapid steps – U.N. report (Reuters, 10/7/2018)
• The 10 Hottest Global Years on Record (Climate Central)
• Global Climate in 2015-2019: Climate change accelerates (World Meteorological Organization):
  The tell-tale signs and impacts of climate change – such as sea level rise, ice loss and extreme weather – increased during 2015-2019, which is set to be the warmest five-year period on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have also increased to record levels, locking in the warming trend for generations to come.
• Extreme weather disasters have increased in the U.S. since 2009:
• Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters – Overview (NOAA)
• Climate Change Is Going to Make Extreme Weather Events Worse: Here’s Why (Newsweek)
• Hurricanes have become bigger and more destructive for the U.S., study finds (Phys.Org):
  [H]urricanes have become more destructive since 1900, and the worst of them are more than three times as frequent now than 100 years ago. A new way of calculating the destruction, compensating for the societal change in wealth, unequivocally shows a climatic increase in the frequency of the most destructive hurricanes that routinely raise havoc on the North American southern and east coasts.
• The rise and fall (and rise?) of the Paris Climate Agreement, since 2009:
• Global leaders are facing one of the scariest years of climate change yet (Quartz)
• Timeline: Paris Agreement on climate change (Consilium/Council of the European Union)
• Climategate 10 years on: what lessons have we learned? (Guardian UK)
• Climate change in presidential debates:
• Climate Change Is Finally Getting the Attention It Deserved 20 Years Ago (New Republic)
• Warren and Booker Lead Candidates At Environmental Justice Forum (Guardian UK)
• We asked 2020 Democratic candidates 6 key questions on climate change. Here’s what they said. (Vox)
• 2020 candidates give more attention to climate change than in past elections (ABC News)
• Electric cars have surged since 2009:
>China’s plan: Beat America (and everyone else) (E&E News)
• By 2040, more than half of new cars will be electric (CNN)
• Electric vehicle sales are up sharply in California, mostly due to Tesla (LA Times)
• The great electric car race is just beginning (CNN)
• Tesla Model 3 survey: Buyers trade in BMWs and Toyotas (Bloomberg)
• Volkswagen plans to phase out gas and diesel engines by 2026 (UPI, 12/8/2018)
• Renewable energy has surged since 2009:
• Renewable Prices Continue to Drop (Climate Crocks)
• Significant Renewable Energy Growth in U.S. Very Soon, New Estimates Predict (EcoWatch)
• U.S. renewable electricity generation has doubled since 2008 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
• Kids today: global Climate Strikes, liability lawsuits:
• ‘Climate strike’ named 2019 word of the year by Collins Dictionary (Guardian UK)
• ‘Unite behind the science,’ Greta Thunberg tells 1,200 at Charlotte climate strike (Charlotte Observer)
• Pay attention to the growing wave of climate change lawsuits (Vox)

‘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

• After Boost From Perry, Backers Got Huge Gas Deal In Ukraine (AP)
• Australia Wildfires: Emergency Declared Over ‘Catastrophic’ Danger (NPR)
• Unfamiliar Ground: Bracing for Climate Impacts in the American Midwest (Inside Climate News)
• VIDEO: Climate change could end mortgages as we know them (CBS News)
• VIDEO: John Oliver on the Death of Murray Coal (Climate Crocks)
• A Scary Year for Climate Change: Scientists’ warnings about climate change have intensified over the past 12 months. Will world leaders finally listen? (Scientific American)
• E.P.A. to Limit Science Used to Write Public Health Rules (NY Times)
• Drought-Hit Zimbabwe Readies Mass Wildlife Migration (Reuters)
• Maine’s Shrimp: A Big Climate Change Problem We’re Not Talking About (Huffington Post)
• Thousands Face Life-Threatening Floods From Aging Dams (AP)
• U.S. Military Bases Face Increasingly Dangerous Heat as Climate Changes (Inside Climate News)
• How US Betrayed Marshall Islands, Kindling The Next Nuclear Disaster (LA Times)
• The End Of Florida Orange Juice? Lethal Disease Devastates Industry (Washington Post)
• 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).