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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Oil prices plunge into historic negative territory; Trump EPA rolls back rules on toxic mercury pollution; PLUS: 50th anniversary of Earth Day and climate action, somehow, during a global pandemic… All that and more in today’s Green News Report!

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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): This Earth Day, stop the fossil fuel money pipeline; What the ‘humans are the virus’ meme gets so wrong; Coronavirus stimulus money will be wasted on fossil fuels; 10 years after Deepwater Horizon, the U.S. is even more at risk of a major oil spill; Climate-driven megadrought is emerging in western US, says study; Study: Acting on climate will boost economy… PLUS: American oil is cheap enough for climate activists to buy it… and much, MUCH more! …

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

• Historic benchmark oil price crashes, goes negative territory:
• U.S. Oil Prices Plunge Into Negative Territory (NY Times)
• Explainer: What is a negative crude future and does it mean anything for consumers? (Reuters):
  “There’s no available storage anymore so the price of the commodity is effectively worthless,” said Bob Yawger, director of futures at Mizuho in New York. “So when it’s minus a dollar, they’ll pay you a dollar to get it out of there.”
• VIDEO: US oil prices crash below $0 a barrel. Global stocks are mixed (CNN)
• VIDEO: Oil Plunges Below Zero for First Time in Unprecedented Wipeout (Bloomberg)
• Oil continues unprecedented sell-off: June futures drop 39%, but May contract turns positive (CNBC)
• What the Actual Fuck Is Happening With Oil Prices Right Now? (Earther):
  American oil crashes below $0 a barrel — a record low (CNN)
• A decade after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, offshore drilling is still unsafe (The Conversation)
• Trump EPA guts mercury pollution rule:
• EPA overhauls mercury pollution rule, despite opposition from industry and activists alike (Washington Post)
• EPA rolls back basis for power plant toxic emissions rule (E&E News):
  The rule revokes the statutorily required finding that it is “appropriate and necessary” to curb releases of the potent neurotoxin, along with arsenic and other hazardous pollutants, from coal- and oil-fired power plants. While the actual emissions standards will remain in place, critics predict that today’s move opens the door for a coal industry lawsuit aimed at taking them down as well. Perhaps more consequentially, the rule sets a precedent that will likely make it harder to justify future air pollution curbs.
• EPA guts rule credited with cleaning up toxic coal-plant air (NBC News)
• Air pollution linked to far higher Covid-19 death rates, study finds (Guardian UK)
• Earth Day 2020 and climate action during a global pandemic, somehow:
• Earth Day: The Official Site | Earth Day Network – Join us for 24 hours of action (Earth Day Network)
• Earth Day 2020! Celebrate our home planet with these online activities (Space)
• Earth Day’s Gone Digital. Here’s Where to Find It. (NY Times)
• The Best Earth Day Content to Stream (Vanity Fair)
• VIDEO: From Virtual Field Trips to Gardening, Here Are 9 Activities You Can Do to Celebrate Earth Day at Home (Travel and Leisure)
• Sorry to disappoint climate deniers, but coronavirus makes the low-carbon transition more urgent (The Conversation)
• Christiana Figueres: 5 Lessons From Coronavirus That Will Help Us Tackle Climate Change (Time)
• AUDIO: ‘Our climate crisis is a choice’: Christiana Figueres on why we can change the future (Guardian UK)
• Denis Hayes, original Earth Day organizer: The most important election of your lifetime (Seattle Times):
  For two years, the Earth Day Network patiently laid the groundwork for gigantic crowds in 180 nations, from St. Peter’s Square to Kolkata…If you have never participated in a get-out-the-vote drive, November 3 is the day you should prepare for. COVID-19 robbed us of Earth Day this year. So let’s make Election Day Earth Day. On November 3, don’t vote for your pocketbook, or your political tribe, or your cultural biases.

  This November 3, vote for the Earth.

• The ‘Profoundly Radical’ Message of Earth Day’s First Organizer” (NY Times)
• The first Earth Day was a shot heard around the world (The Conversation)
• As Earth Day turns 50, the green movement faces fresh challenges (Chicago Tribune):
  A fundamental, global change in thinking and action is needed that goes well beyond any one day, said former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who called Earth Day an opportunity for “a wake-up call.” “But the darkness, the blindness is so pervasive,” said Brown, who several years ago started an organization with ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to address climate change.
• How People Across the U.S. Celebrated the First Earth Day (Time)
• Earth Day inspiration: Words on nature from our greatest thinkers (Treehugger)
• On the 50th Earth Day, take collective action for the planet (Nature)
• Earth Day at 50: How the environmental movement has changed us (Reading Eagle)
• Coronavirus brings clearer skies but darker world to 50th Earth Day (Axios)

‘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 Earth Day, Stop the Money Pipeline: We’re cooked unless investors stop funding fossil fuel companies. (Bill McKibben, The Nation)
• What the ‘Humans Are the Virus’ Meme Gets So Wrong (Earther)
• Coronavirus stimulus money will be wasted on fossil fuels (Vox)
• 10 years after Deepwater Horizon, the U.S. is even more at risk of a major oil spill (Grist)
• American oil is cheap enough for climate activists to buy it. Whether or not they should is an open question. (Bloomberg)
• ‘All available evidence’ suggests COVID-19 had animal origin and wasn’t produced in lab – WHO (CBC)
• Climate-driven megadrought is emerging in western US, says study (Science Daily)
• Study: Acting on Climate Will Boost Economy (Climate Crocks)
• White House moves to weaken EPA rule on toxic compounds (AP)
• EPA Faces Court Over Backing Of Monsanto’s Controversial Crop System (Guardian UK)
• Foes Of Pebble Mine Lose A Round In Court (Alaska Public Media)
• Climate Change Undercuts Air Pollution Improvements (NPR)
• Coronavirus at Smithfield pork plant: The untold story of America’s biggest outbreak (BBC)
• Exxon’s Snake Oil: 100 years of deception (Columbia Journalism Review)
• 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).