‘Green News Report’ – January 21, 2020

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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: World’s oceans hottest ever recorded in 2019; Climate change a growing concern for Wall Street and banks; PLUS: Federal appeals court dismisses climate kids’ lawsuit… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Greta Thunberg’s message at Davos Forum: ‘Our house is still on fire’; ’Transmission hamstrings push for 100% clean electricity; Humans risk living in an empty world, warns UN biodiversity chief; UN rules that climate refugees fleeing disaster cannot be sent back home; Mayfly numbers dro by half since 2012, threatening food chain; China to ban single-use plastic bags and other items… PLUS: Plastic bags have lobbyists. They’re winning…. and much, MUCH more! …

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

• World’s ocean hit record high temperatures in 2019:
• Record-Setting Ocean Warmth Continued in 2019 (Springer Link)
• Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating accelerates (Guardian UK)
• ‘5 Hiroshima Bombs of Heat, Every Second’: The World’s Oceans Absorbed Record-Level Heat Last Year (VICE)
• It’s official: the oceans are warmer than ever (BBC)
• Ocean warming linked to mass die-off of seabirds in 2015:
• Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016 (PLOS One)
• Dead Birds Washing Up by the Thousands Send a Warning About Climate Change (Inside Climate News):
  The common murres weren’t the only species to experience mass die-offs during this time—tufted puffins, Cassin’s auklets, sea lions and baleen whales died, too. But what the scientists document is by far the largest die-off, one they say was caused by disturbances rippling across the food web, a result in part of ocean warming from climate change.
• BlackRock announces major shift in investment strategy away from fossil fuels:
• BlackRock C.E.O. Larry Fink: Climate Crisis Will Reshape Finance (NY Times)
• BlackRock’s Hildebrand Says Lawmakers Key to Climate Fight (Bloomberg)
• VIDEO: BlackRock Exec: Climate risks forcing investments into sustainability (CNN)
• BlackRock C.E.O. Larry Fink: Climate Crisis Will Reshape Finance (NY Times)
• Climate change takes central focus at World Economic Forum in Davos:
• Climate crisis fills top five places of World Economic Forum’s risks report (Guardian UK)
• For the first time, our failing environment is seen as the biggest business risk at Davos (Quartz)
• Trump attacks climate-change ‘prophets of doom’ in Davos speech (MarketWatch)
• Microsoft announces “carbon negative” target by 2030:
• VIDEO: Microsoft’s Nadella talks carbon negative initiative (CNBC)
• Microsoft: ‘Carbon-Negative’ By 2030 Even For Supply Chain (AP)
• Microsoft’s ambitious plan to remove its entire carbon footprint (ZDNet)
• Appeals court quashes ‘climate kids’ lawsuit:
• 21 kids sued the government over climate change. A federal court dismissed the case. (Vox)
• Appeals Court ‘Reluctantly’ Kills Youth Climate Case Against Trump (Earther)
• Kids’ Climate Lawsuit Thrown Out by Appeals Court (Inside Climate News)

‘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

• Greta Thunberg’s Message at Davos Forum: ‘Our House Is Still on Fire’ (NY Times)
• Single-use plastic: China to ban bags and other items (BBC)
• Transmission hamstrings push for 100% clean electricity (E&E News)
• Humans Risk Living In An Empty World, Warns UN Biodiversity Chief (Guardian UK)
• People Urgently Fleeing Climate Crisis Cannot Be Sent Home, UN Rules (BBC)
• Mayfly Numbers Drop By Half Since 2012, Threatening Food Chain (National Geographic)
• Plastic Bags Have Lobbyists. They’re Winning. (Politico)
• Politics: Texas Elections Could Upend U.S. Oil And Gas (E&E News)
• Bloomberg, Steyer Focus On Climate Change In Effort To Stand Out (The Hill)
• Elk Raise Tensions Between Washington Tribes, Farmers In Skagit Valley (NPR)
• The $119 Billion Sea Wall That Could Defend New York … or Not (NY Times)
• Trump Teases Plan To Roll Back Key Obama-Era Water Rule (The Hill)
• Louisiana Tribes File Rights Complaint With UN Over US Climate Inaction (NOLA)
• Energy Firms Have Friend At Trump’s Interior: Their Former Lobbyist (Mother Jones)
• 2019 Was a Record Year for Ocean Temperatures, Data Show (NY Times)
• 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)
• 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).